computer-go: Two ways to program a GO-engine

[Roland <goprog@xxxxxxx>]

Hello computer-go,

  As I was following all this discussion about perfect play and so on,
  I suddenly recognized that there are two ways to approach a
  GO-Program.

  1. Try to make a program that achieves perfect or near perfect play.
  In this case the problem is to figure out what perfect play
  is, without needing a full game tree. In this case algorithms like
  fractal Go and others find use.

  2. Try to make a program that plays like the best human players. In
  this case we have to collect the knowledge of the pro players and
  find a way to translate it to the computer, so that he understands
  it and plays accordingly. The main difficulty here should be to make
  the computer think in abstract terms.

I think there is a fundamental difference in the two approaches and
the list tends to favor approach 1. The problem is, that we don't know
how to compute perfect play, and maybe we never will be able to do so.
Thus,may it be that approach 2 is the better and more effective one?

-- 
Best regards,
 Roland