Kasparov Match With Deep Blue

Our relations with computers--as with living systems that differ from us in sex, race, or species--continue to be colored by our defensive need to prove that “our kind” is better than other kinds. The current chess games between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue (“Kasparov Bedevils Deep Blue With First Win,” Feb. 12) are valuable tests of our progress in computer development, but only the simple-minded should view this as a sports event between “our side” and “them.”

Such bias is revealed in how the two opponents are described. When the computer does advance planning that it cannot verbalize, it is (disparagingly?) called “a thoughtless machine.” When Kasparov does this, “he intuitively senses which [moves] are best.” Yet it would be possible, with work, to get a verbal description of these processes from the computer, but not from Kasparov. Does this make one or the other better or merely demonstrate the fruits of a self-esteem grounded in comparisons?

RICHARD O’CONNELL

North Hills