Chess and Blogging
Published Mon, Apr 23 2007 8:47 AM
Technorati Tags: Blogging
Chess is an interesting game. It's rules are fairly simple, but the possibilities can be fairly complex. Until a few years ago it was something that only a few humans could master, but only humans could truly master it. Now there are some machines that can outplay humans, but they're very large, and very expensive. They play by brute force rather than insight.
I haven't played chess in decades, except against computers. I'm reasonably good at playing it, but not against people who are dedicated players. I can beat a couple of chess programs, but not when I play against them on any of the higher difficulty levels. Most chess masters can beat the commercially available chess programs.
When I was a college student, back before the electric light-bulb was invented (o.k. maybe not quite that far back) I had the opportunity to watch a chess master play the game against a score or so of players from the chess club at Michigan State University. The room was laid out with several tables arranged in a square around the perimeter. On each table were several chessboards with a club member at each board. The chess master was in the center.
He started a game at one of the tables. After each player had made one move he would move on to the next game, where each player would make one move and so on. Most of the time the exchanges were fairly quick, but occasionally he would stop at a chessboard for a couple of minutes to examine the situation before taking his turn and moving on to the next game.
It was fascinating to watch. What was even more fascinating is that he won all but one or two of the games. I was thoroughly impressed, because I had played against some of the people he soundly defeated, and I could barely hold my own against them.
In some ways I think blogging is like that, except that the idea behind blogging is the exchange of ideas, not the defeat of an opponent. A blogger starts many "games" with several posts on his or her blog. Commenters come and go and the blogger visits each game to respond to a comment or not. If the blogger reads and comments at other blogs, it becomes a bit like intersecting rings of "games".
Each comment thread requires a shift in attention and a consideration of the positions before a response can be made. Some commenters will articulate their positions well and others won't. The ones that do can challenge a blogger to rise to their level to address their ideas.
I think that this helps to sharpen the mind. The higher the quality of the debate the better. The major news media like to dismiss the blogosphere because we don't fit their template. I think they miss the opportunity for meaningful debate that blogging provides.
Some of the major news organizations allow comments on their news articles. Occasionally this results in a decent debate, but often the comments are heavily weighted to one ideological "side" or the other, and devolve into name calling.
Of course, a lot of blogs end up with the same problem. Groupthink seems to be a common malady, and there seems to be a strong tendency of bloggers to "run in packs".
I don't particularly enjoy reading blogs that run strongly counter to my own ideological comfort zone. Much of the time it's because of the tendency of the regular readers of those blogs, or even their authors to dismiss differing opinions as coming from a "right-wing hack", or to resort to ad-hominem attacks and name calling.
I suppose that there's a similar problem for people on the left that want to carry on a meaningful debate with "the right". I've started a new blog as a place where, hopefully meaningful but civil debate on todays issues will be carried out. I'm still working out the details, but I'll be inviting a few people over to join the team soon.
I don't play chess much anymore, but I have a lot of fun blogging. Thanks to all of you that read and comment here for keeping it interesting. And thanks for each of your blogs.
(No, this blog isn't going away. It's sort of my home on the web after all.)
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