In the new chapter of 20 bit by Valbat We sat down to talk about something that has long fascinated us: how we think… and how machines think. There are games that not only help you have a good time but also put you at that point where human logic and computational logic meet. Games that teach you how to make decisions, anticipate mistakes, and see the world as a computer does, without manuals or complicated programming lessons.
Some of them were born thousands of years ago, others are in Spanish universities, and others are hidden in the consoles that many children have at home. They all have something in common: They make you thinkAnd they do it in such a fun way that you don’t even realize you’re learning.
In this chapter we tell you a story Four games – two on the table and two on console – train your brain and show you, step by step, how machines think.
GO: The game that tested artificial intelligence
Imagine a blank canvas. Smooth wood, black lines, black and white chips. Nothing else.
It’s hard to believe that one of the greatest intellectual challenges in history could be hidden in something so simple.
he He goeswhich was born 2,500 years ago in China, has two rules so simple that anyone can learn them in five minutes. But once you enter its world, you discover an infinite universe: the possible combinations of the game exceed the number of atoms in the universe. literally.
For decades, no computer could control it. It was not a matter of brute force: You had to learn intuitionsomething we have always considered exclusively human.
Then came in 2016 Alpha Go. DeepMind’s AI has analyzed millions of games, played against itself thousands of times and learned how to make decisions that no human could have imagined. Like legendary already “Play 37”It’s a move so strange that experts around the world thought it was a mistake. It wasn’t. It was algorithmic creativity at its purest.
Since then, Go has become more than just a game: it’s a laboratory of ideas, a mirror for understanding how a machine can learn, surprise… and win.
Moon: When you are the Apollo 11 computer
Now change the board for the lunar module:
1969. Apollo 11 is about to land on the moon. There are a few seconds left. Alarms start going off. Something is not right.
with moona board game created at the University of Deusto, you are the brain of the system: the computer that must maintain the stability of the unit, decide which task has priority and what you can sacrifice to avoid disaster.
It is a tribute to a work Margaret Hamiltonan MIT engineer who programming The mission was saved when the system was overwhelmed by radar. The code written line by line allowed us to ignore secondary operations and focus on what was important: Earth without breaking.
Moon recreates these types of decisions: resolving incidents, following binary logic, and understanding how a machine processes information.
Video Game Studio: Programming without writing a single line
Now turn on your Nintendo Switch. No to play: l creates.
in Video game studioEvery idea that comes to your mind can be turned into a video game. You don’t need to know C++ or Python. Simply drag blocks, link actions, and decide what will happen.
It’s visual programming, but it’s also more than that: a laboratory for trial and error.
You put a letter. I tried to jump. Something is wrong. You can adjust it. You failed again. You correct him.
Without realizing it, you are learning exactly the same thing as any developer: Thinking in systems, anticipating errors, and building rules.
Super Mario Maker 2: Design the level and understand the mind
Super Mario Maker 2 starts out as a building game… until you discover that it’s actually about mind reading.
You can design a level, place a pipe, connect two platforms, and hide a trap. But what you end up doing is imagining how someone else would play.
Will he jump sooner? Are you going to fall there? Will it be too difficult? Very easy?
This dance between what you create and what another player will do is exactly the essence of video game design: Prediction, control, and balance.
Play is another way of thinking
These four games – which are very different from each other – have one basic thing in common: they force you to activate your brain. For a reason. To create. To anticipate. To be solved.
Almost without realizing it, they’re also teaching you how the machines you use every day do it: artificial intelligence that analyzes millions of possibilities, software that prioritizes tasks, a system that responds to events, and a designer that visualizes behaviors.
Because the key isn’t to avoid screens or just watch. The key is Using technology to learn, create, and understand how the world around us works.
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