games – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 With Fifth Busy Beaver, Researchers Approach Computation’s Limits https://www.quantamagazine.org/amateur-mathematicians-find-fifth-busy-beaver-turing-machine-20240702/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/amateur-mathematicians-find-fifth-busy-beaver-turing-machine-20240702/#respond Tue, 02 Jul 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138926 The post With Fifth Busy Beaver, Researchers Approach Computation’s Limits first appeared on Quanta Magazine

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Once upon a time, over 40 years ago, a horde of computer scientists descended on the West German city of Dortmund. They were competing to catch an elusive quarry — only four of its kind had ever been captured. Over 100 competitors dragged in the strangest creatures they could find, but they still fell short. The fifth busy beaver had escaped their clutches. Of course, that slippery beast and its...

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Game Theory Can Make AI More Correct and Efficient https://www.quantamagazine.org/game-theory-can-make-ai-more-correct-and-efficient-20240509/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/game-theory-can-make-ai-more-correct-and-efficient-20240509/#respond Thu, 09 May 2024 13:55:50 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=137843 The post Game Theory Can Make AI More Correct and Efficient first appeared on Quanta Magazine

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Imagine you had a friend who gave different answers to the same question, depending on how you asked it. “What’s the capital of Peru?” would get one answer, and “Is Lima the capital of Peru?” would get another. You’d probably be a little worried about your friend’s mental faculties, and you’d almost certainly find it hard to trust any answer they gave. That’s exactly what’s happening with many...

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The Surprisingly Simple Math Behind Puzzling Matchups https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-surprisingly-simple-math-behind-puzzling-matchups-20240125/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-surprisingly-simple-math-behind-puzzling-matchups-20240125/#respond Thu, 25 Jan 2024 16:20:30 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=134281 The post The Surprisingly Simple Math Behind Puzzling Matchups first appeared on Quanta Magazine

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It’s the championship game of the Imaginary Math League, where the Atlanta Algebras will face the Carolina Cross Products. The two teams haven’t played each other this season, but earlier in the year Atlanta defeated the Brooklyn Bisectors by a score of 10 to 5, and Brooklyn defeated Carolina by a score of 7 to 3. Does that give us any insight into who will take the title? Well, here’s one line of...

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Math’s ‘Game of Life’ Reveals Long-Sought Repeating Patterns https://www.quantamagazine.org/maths-game-of-life-reveals-long-sought-repeating-patterns-20240118/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/maths-game-of-life-reveals-long-sought-repeating-patterns-20240118/#respond Thu, 18 Jan 2024 15:36:42 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=134147 The post Math’s ‘Game of Life’ Reveals Long-Sought Repeating Patterns first appeared on Quanta Magazine

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In 1969, the British mathematician John Conway devised a beguilingly simple set of rules for creating complex behavior. His Game of Life, often referred to simply as Life, unfolds on an infinite square grid of cells. Each cell can be either “alive” or “dead.” The grid evolves over a series of turns (or “generations”), with the fate of each cell determined by the eight cells surrounding it.

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AI System Beats Chess Puzzles With ‘Artificial Brainstorming’ https://www.quantamagazine.org/google-deepmind-trains-artificial-brainstorming-in-chess-ai-20231115/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/google-deepmind-trains-artificial-brainstorming-in-chess-ai-20231115/#respond Wed, 15 Nov 2023 15:48:12 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=132316 The post AI System Beats Chess Puzzles With ‘Artificial Brainstorming’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine

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When Covid-19 sent people home in early 2020, the computer scientist Tom Zahavy rediscovered chess. He had played as a kid and had recently read Garry Kasparov’s Deep Thinking, a memoir of the grandmaster’s 1997 matches against IBM’s chess-playing computer, Deep Blue. He watched chess videos on YouTube and The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix. Despite his renewed interest, Zahavy wasn’t looking for ways...

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