Re: computer-go: Authenticating the identity of a remote go-playing computer program

[Steve Korfhage <korfhage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Forgive me if I seem a little behind the current discussion on digital signatures, I'm stepping back a little, to the basics.

I don't agree at all with limiting algorithms to be deterministic.  This is too limiting to the developers and especially the AI field in general as applied to the game of Go.  I think this would cut too many opportunities out of competition.

It would be a shame to have a "limited" tournament become standard, simply because no-one has to travel. By limited, I mean the limitation of algorithms. Human nature tends toward laziness - this type of tournament could become very popular. Do you want a de-facto standard to embrace this serious limitation of algorithms?  It will lead to a dead-end road, and in the end serious competitors will not be associated with it.

The idea (as I see it) is to keep people from having to fly around the country, not necessarily that the internet (which requires a network card and drivers) MUST be used.  If network is eliminated, it's a *little* easier to eliminate unauthorized inputs, by not allowing any network hardware or drivers to be installed on the competing computer. Using the internet is definitely more friendly, but isn't the only solution.  Competitions are still using standard, non-network, modem protocol for play.

It seems that the core of the problems is to determine if a program/computer is receiving data from somewhere other than algorithms.

Why not just disable all hardware input ports which are not required for a Go program to operate in the competition?  (keyboard, mouse, network, com ports, printer ports etc). Isn't there some way to disable inputs from outside the computer?

Couldn't this be done by using a device driver which controls and monitors hardware in the computer? (mouse, keyboard, and other ports of communication)  Maybe this requires a standard hardware configuration, where the driver won't even load if certain hardware (like network cards and keyboards) are present.  Also, the competition "organization" would need to distribute the device driver(s). Of course, this requires writing compatible drivers for different operating systems.  Authentication could be included, where two different drivers are used: one for developer integration, which is released early, and another for competition which is released just before competition.

The competition could take place by dial-up modem, where a server dials the competitors, instead of the other way around.  Since long distance charges are involved, competitions would need sponsorship, either from sponsors or entry fees. This doesn't seem like a big problem, especially with the cheap long distance rates these days.

All this could be applied to the official "remote" tournaments, but practice sessions could still be held over the internet with no authentication whatsoever.  As someone already pointed out (but not in the same words), you can cheat all you want in practice, but not at the competition, where "the men are separated from the boys", e.g. the players from the cheaters.

I'm not intending to open a can of worms here, I just wanted to throw out an opinion.

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Steve
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