NewsTrust - Games - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Chinook, the unbeatable checkers-playing computer

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:38:23 -0700

Salon - By Farhad Manjoo - Jul. 19 (Opinion) - Scientists at the University of Alberta report that they've built an unbeatable checkers-playing computer. Their machine, Chinook, has solved checkers: It proves that if two players play perfectly, making no mistakes, the game of checkers will result in a draw. The proof required analyzing 500 billion billion checkers positions -- 5 x 1020 -- a computational process that began in 1989 and has been running on hundreds of processors almost continuously since. Chinook now knows everything about checkers, the perfect response to any move, and the best that any human can do is drive Chinook to a draw. You can never win.

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Media Coverage of Left Behind: Eternal Forces -- Just the Beginning

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Talk to Action - By Frederick Clarkson - Jul. 21 (Opinion) - We can reasonably expect to see a lot of media coverage of the convert-or-kill-New Yorkers themed video game Left Behind: Eternal Forces over the next few months. The latest article to appear is currently running on Alternet. Alternet's story, by Zack Pelta-Heller is quite comprehensive, and will no doubt inspire further reporting on the game and its forthcoming release. The story features Talk to Action's Jonathan Hutson and his dramatic series of stories that showed, among other things, how the game, based on Tim LaHaye's controversial series of novels, and intended for children as young as 13, is an indoctrination program that teaches that in the End Times, Christian militias will roam the streets of New York, requiring people to convert or be killed. (But when the Religion News Service wrote about the game recently, they left some things out.)

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The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Part 1)

Mon, 29 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Talk to Action - By Jonathan Hutson - May. 29 (Opinion) - Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.

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