[computer-go] Search = Bad!

["Frank de Groot" <frank@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: "Chris Fant" <chrisfant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> If you really want help to develop your idea, then you should probably
> just state it clearly instead of in the form of a riddle.

Hi Chris,

A "riddle" is the best way to explain it. I can't express myself
mathematically.
As I'm trying to understand the problem and find a solution, I have to make
analogies.
Sorry if that offends anybody.

You have to walk 1 km through a forest, it is the forest of swamp, trees and
rock.
You walk with a frog and you are a lizard. The frog needs swamp and you need
rock. You can both live in the forest though.

You can go through swamp but never too long, only when it brings you to rock
or at least trees. Every 3 m is a some rock, some swamp or a tree and they
all have a litlle mushroom with rings (b / w).
The goal is that when you reach the other end of the forest (which is not so
far away), that you are standing on rock, not in swamp.

The forest is very narrow (you're out of it in a few hours at most) but
EXTREMELY wide and the crazy thing is, you can walk almost infinitely fast
in the sideways directions so you will be able to cover the entire
almost-infinite forest in the same time it would take you to walk straight
ahead.

The forest is not randomly filled with rock, trees and swamp, butin a very
orderly fashion according to a very simple algorithm. At the end of the
forest are very large patches with either only trees, only rock or only
swamp. Those patches are HUGE but the paths leading to them start very
narrow, then become wider.

You draw white rings and the other person draws black rings on the
mushrooms.
(A ring decides which direction both of you will go, on of max. 360
directions (Isn't it funny how the directions of the compass have 360
degrees as well :).
You want to end up on rock and the other person wants to end up in swamp.

The rings tell you something about where you will end up in. Rings rarely
disappear, you mainly draw new rings.

It is the forest of near-infinite possibilities BUT THE FOREST IS NOT
CHAOTIC, it is in fact beautifully regular (only to be understood when
looked at from high above, like from an airplane).

Someone who has studie the forest from above has seen the regularity in the
forest.  If you would be able to see the rings on the trees and say: "those
kind of rings will look similar like the kinds of rings that will take you
away from bad crucial points and towards good crucial points", you will be
able to paint your rings better. And if you would be able to find the good
paths for you based on the rings on the mushrooms and your knwoledge of the
structure of the forest.

So there you are, standing in the forest, looking at the markings on the
trees and you have to make a more informed opinion than the other, based on:

1. Your better knowledge on the *regularity* of the forest and its markings
vs. direction structure.

2. Your better understanding on how existing tree marking patterns relate to
"better" marking patterns for either of you, so that you can "head towards"
"areas" in the forest that are good for you, swamp or rock.


> BTW, I checked out www.zenhacker.com yesterday and your software looks
> like it's coming together quite nicely.

My site is called since a year www.moyogo.com
I say this bec. zenhacker.com can be taken off the air any moment.

Thanks for the hands-up, there is tremendous stress trying to get this
product out the door in a  timely fashion.

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