Human vs. Machine

By Nick Maker

There have been lots of movies telling of a world of robots that took over the earth, like the Terminator, I Robot, and many other famous movies. Many people fear that the age of robots is upon us. Robots have more energy than we do as they show off their IQ points, and they sometimes replace human jobs. So what do you think, are machines clearly better than us in many ways?

Well, yes and no. Yes, because they have precise and better linear thinking than humans. No, because, since the machine is linear, it does not have the extended field of knowledge that we humans have. It has no knowledge of things like emotions, empathy, love, a will choice between good and evil, or just seeing a painting from a unique point of view. Machines may be good for precise jobs, for they won’t get tired out, but humans built the machines to help us when it is dangerous or boring.

In intelligence, machines such as calculators can perform problems quicker and solve any riddles faster than any organic being (beside aliens), but humans can still outperform them in certain (sometimes surprising) tasks. Even a machine can be stumped by a human — for instance, in the chess tournament when Bobby Fischer, a world’s greatest chess player, took on the world’s smartest computer named Deep Blue. Everyone wanted to discover the world’s smartest being, so the game was set. The first round Deep Blue beat Fischer; second round Bobby got a point; third round the computer won; and later it went all in the final round and both were tied to 2 points. Who do you think won the last round? … Bobby Fischer!

He thought he couldn’t beat the computer using logic or straightforward strategy because he knew the computer would predict his every move. So he used that advantage to trick it and to lure it into his trap and that’s how he proves that every person does have a trick up their sleeve.