Poker Competition
If the appeal in competition is not just profit, but knowing that the profit came from another’s loss, then it is no surprise that certain “zero-sum games” dominate our world and culture. Poker is a perfect example of this American fascination with capitalism and despotic schadenfreude. This is because poker, just like any other zero-sum game, requires success and failure to be mutually inclusive. While poker is not quite in the realm of pure gambling and is not quite in the realm of pure skill, it successfully stands irresolute in the middle of it all with its ambiguous classification appealing to nearly every subset of our society. The diversity in its players is reflected in the innumerable Internet resources on the subject: sites that appeal to the gambler—downloadable interfaces to transform card room leisure into a domestic dalliance; sites that cater to mathematicians, economists and computer scientists in pursuit of new insights into AI programming and game theory; as well as sites for the serious card player (whom should never be referred to as a gambler as this connotes a certain unacceptable level of skill!) covering the gambit of topics from poker psychology to personalized poker chips. Each poker-related website reflects this diversity of audience with respective varieties in style and information, but three specific sites aptly and obviously categorize players into the academic, the leisurely, and the professional. Respectively, they are: University of Alberta’s Poker Research Group, Yahoo! Games – Poker, and Two Plus Two Publishing.
The University of Alberta has set out on the moderately ambitious task of designing a poker-playing computer that can beat the world’s best human player. T...
... middle of paper ...
... card player and it is perfectly designed for that aim.
It is not surprising that poker appeals to such a wide range of individuals or that poker sites have been created around their differences. This can be seen in all modes of competitive sport and poker is no exception. There is a contextual similarity in these sites that reflects a commonality in all poker players: win at all costs. The AI website clearly states that it exists with the intent of beating the world’s best player, visitors to Two Plus Two perpetually debate why his or her particular strategy is the most valuable, and even the novice player, when learning the rules of the game, is taught foremost to be a good bluffer (liar). These websites each uniquely capture the modus operandi of the poker player, the Machiavellian spirit of Vidal’s introductory quote, that simply winning is never enough.
The Crusades were an outlet for the intense religious tension between the Muslims and the church which rose up in the late 11th century. This all started because the church and the Catholics wanted the Holy Lands back from the Muslims. Around this time the church was the biggest institute and people were god-fearing. Pope Gregory VII wanted to control more lands and wanted to get back the lands that they had lost to the Muslims (Medieval Europe). So in order to get back these lands he launched The Crusades which he insisted to the peasants was a holy war instead.
The official foundations for "artificial intelligence" were set forth by A. M. Turing, in his 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" wherein he also coined the term and made predictions about the field. He claimed that by 1960, a computer would be able to formulate and prove complex mathematical theorems, write music and poetry, become world chess champion, and pass his test of artificial intelligences. In his test, a computer is required to carry on a compelling conversation with humans, fooling them into believing they are speaking with another human. All of his predictions require a computer to think and reason in the same manner as a human. Despite 50 years of effort, only the chess championship has come true. By refocusing artificial intelligence research to a more humanlike, cognitive model, the field will create machines that are truly intelligent, capable of meet Turing's goals. Currently, the only "intelligent" programs and computers are not really intelligent at all, but rather they are clever applications of different algorithms lacking expandability and versatility. The human intellect has only been used in limited ways in the artificial intelligence field, however it is the ideal model upon which to base research. Concentrating research on a more cognitive model will allow the artificial intelligence (AI) field to create more intelligent entities and ultimately, once appropriate hardware exists, a true AI.
In the course of writing this paper I learned about the way the human mind can be manipulated by very simple things, and when it is discovered it is often too late. There are smart gamblers who do win, but the majority don’t think and wind up spending incredible amounts of money.
The issue then becomes how to consolidate the old and the new. Common ground must be found. Sandel provides us with a potential solution, and it comes back to the respect for the giftedness of life. Being a good athlete, a good performer, or a good parent comes down to this idea. It is about accepting and appreciating what life has provided for you. Through discipline and hard work, one can strengthen the body, but with significant respect in hand. For a child, there must be a careful balance between loving and challenging it. The genetic lottery is something we all participate in. Overriding this system nature has provided for us would be a deep moral violation. On what grounds would we be able to judge humanity if take complete control of it? Nobody is perfect. Accepting that opens the door to the appreciation for life.
The adrenaline-rushing feeling of gambling offers people the idea that opportunity lies within their hands. Unfortunately, there are far too many consequences to gambling to even begin to count. To win you must play, and to win big you must play big. As more gamblers can recall their losses rather than their winnings, gamblers are often dealt with poor hands and must play the risky game to stay alive. Even though gambling has so many faults, some still fall under its corruptions because of gambling’s deceiving fallacies.
In conclusion, among other triumphs, the sole purpose of the Crusades was to reclaim the Holy Land: Jerusalem. Some crusades were successful, and some failed, however, they as a whole have had long term effects on history. The Crusades were important because not only were they a factor in the history of the progress of civilization, but their effects have influenced the Catholic church’s wealth and power as well as other matters (Alchison 1/1).
“The Crusades: series of wars by Western European Christians to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims.” (Encarta “Crusades”) The Crusades first began in 1096 and ended in the late 13th century. The term Crusade originally meant that the European’s would use all their efforts to regain the power from the Muslims. They wanted to retake the city of Jerusalem, which was holy to Christians because that’s where the crucifixion of Jesus Christ occurred. Europeans later used it to allocate any military efforts against non-Christians. The Crusaders also created feudal states in the Near East. The Crusades played an important role of European expansion and colonialism. “They mark the first time Western Christendom undertook a military initiative far from home, the first time significant numbers left to carry their culture and religion abroad.”
Smarter than You Think starts out with a cautionary tale of how in 1997 world chess champion Garry Kasparov was beaten by Deep Blue, an I.B.M. supercomputer. This was a considered a milestone in artificial intelligence. If a computer could easily defeat a chess champion, what would happen to the game and its players? A year after Kasparov was defeated by the program he decided to see what would happen when a computer and person were paired up. He called this collaboration the centaur; A hybrid consisting of the algorithms and history logs of chess as well as the brain to “analyze their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as their moods.” ...
In 1095, the conflict between the Christians and the Muslims started a crusade (a military campaign in defense of Christianity) for the battle of Jerusalem. This crusade involved people of other religions besides Christianity such as the Jews but they did not play a major role during this time. The Crusades lasted almost two decades and consisted of eight different crusades. With all of the events and actions that took during the Crusades, it led too many effects throughout years. There were short term effects and long term effects from the crusades that effected people of all different cultures. Two places which have had many effects from the Crusades are Europe and Islam. The Crusades has had short term and long term effects on power, economic and classical knowledge throughout Europe and Islam.
One of the hottest topics that modern science has been focusing on for a long time is the field of artificial intelligence, the study of intelligence in machines or, according to Minsky, “the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men”.(qtd in Copeland 1). Artificial Intelligence has a lot of applications and is used in many areas. “We often don’t notice it but AI is all around us. It is present in computer games, in the cruise control in our cars and the servers that route our email.” (BBC 1). Different goals have been set for the science of Artificial Intelligence, but according to Whitby the most mentioned idea about the goal of AI is provided by the Turing Test. This test is also called the imitation game, since it is basically a game in which a computer imitates a conversating human. In an analysis of the Turing Test I will focus on its features, its historical background and the evaluation of its validity and importance.
people to keep playing with. Nothing less that psychological warfare is going on at casinos across the country. " The days of shaved dice, missing face cards and rigged roulette wheels are long gone. But the pursuit of profitability in the The corporate era of gambling has turned the average casino into a financial.
This analysis was based on the U.K. National Lottery that came about November 1994. With this in mind we realize that because game designs are similar throughout the world, these findings are more widely relevant (Farrel 1).
The card game of poker has many variations most of which were created in the United states in the mid 1990s. The standard order of play applies to most of these games, but to fully specify a poker game online requires details about which hand values are used. The number of betting rounds and exactly what cards are dealt with and what other actions are taken between rounds.
Gambling is described as the betting of money or property on the result of an event or game that is mainly random with the desire to win more money or gain additional property. The industry or sector created by the activity of legal gambling is referred to as gaming. Since inception, gambling and gaming has continued to develop to an extent that it worth more than $335 billion across the globe. Most of the revenues obtained in this industry are generated by casinos and lotteries. In the past few years, gambling and gaming have attracted significant concern and controversy, especially with regards to the morality of the practice and whether its financial benefits outweigh the damage. While proponents of gambling
...on, adaptation, and planning for the future. The computer is unable to win because it cannot think like a human, and that is why we humans are smarter than computers to this day (The Daily Galaxy 1-3).