A Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber

Author:Fritz Leiber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ballentine Books
Published: 1964-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

“Lysmov was the first of us to realize fully that we are not playing against a metal monster but against a certain kind of programming. If there are any weaknesses we can spot in that programming, we can win. Very much in the same way that we can again and again defeat a flesh-and-blood player when we discover that he consistently attacks without having an advantage in position or is regularly overcautious about launching a counter-attack when he himself is attacked without justification.”

Sandra nodded eagerly. “So from now on your chances of beating the Machine should keep improving, shouldn’t they? I mean as you find out more and more about the programming.”

Doc smiled. “You forget,” he said gently, “that Simon Great can change the programming before each new game. Now I see why he fought so hard for that point.”

“Oh. Say, Doc, whats this about the Sherevsky end game?”

“You are picking up the language, aren’t you?” he observed. “Sherevsky got a little angry when he discovered that Great had the Machine programmed to analyze steadily on the next move after an adjournment until the game was resumed next morning. Sherevsky questioned whether it was fair for the Machine to "think all night while its opponent had to get some rest Vanderhoef decided for tne Machine, though Sherevsky may carry the protest to FIDE.

“Bah— I think Great wants us to get heated up over such minor matters, just as he is happy (and oh so obliging! ) when we complain about how the Machine blinks or hums or smells. It keeps our minds off the main business of trying to outguess his programming. Incidentally, that is one thing we decided last night—Sherevsky, Willie Angler, Jandorf, Serek, and myself—that we are all going to have to learn to play the Machine without letting it get on our nerves and without asking to be protected from it. As Willie puts it, "So suppose it sounds like a boiler factory even—okay, you can think in a boiler factory.' Myself, I am not so sure of that, but his spirit is right."

Sandra felt herself perking up as a new article began to shape itself in her mind. She said, ""And what about WBM replacing Simon Great?”

Again Doc smiled. ""I think, my dear, that you can safety dismiss that as just a rumor. I think that Simon Great has just begun to fight”

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