The Ghost v the Machine: Chess Computers and the Nature of Human Consciousness

by David Carson

Everyone believes that 21st century chess computers are better players than humans. As a natter of fact, computers are better players than the present crop of chess grandmasters, but is it inevitable that the best chess computer will be better than the best human chess player? According to the author of The Ghost v the Machine, the answer is no. He argues from computer science, mathematics, quantum physics, and philosophy, that the human mind has the capacity to at least equal a classical computer—any classical computer—over the chess board.On the face of it this book is about chess, but beneath the surface it is about consciousness, and about the the question of whether consciousness is computational in the classical sense of this term. The author argues that there is a form of human consciousness—not accessible by any man-made computer or by any finite intelligence—that is quantum rather than classical in nature, and that it is this form of consciousness that makes for a great chess player.A former child chess prodigy, the author presents games from a match he played against the world's strongest chess computer (Stockfish), a match in which he decisively beat the engine playing at full strength (2700 - 3300).

76 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 19, 2021