• About
• Listen & Read
• Word List
• Discuss
• Tune In
• Explore
• Contact

• Previous
• Next

Computers and the Human Brain

Voice 1

Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Adam Navis.

Voice 2

And I'm Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 1

Computers are everywhere. They are used in almost all industries. People use computers for design, financial record keeping, writing, and playing games. People have computers in their homes, their cars, and their telephones. Computers are so normal most people no longer notice them. Today's Spotlight compares computers and the human brain. We will ask the question: are computers more intelligent than people?

Voice 2

Computers were invented about sixty years ago. During the 1950s computers were so large that they filled whole rooms. Compared to today's computers, they could not do very much. But to a world without computers, they did amazing things! This was a machine that could do things that before, only people could do!

Voice 1

It did not take long for people to begin to wonder. If a computer could do difficult mathematics, could a computer ever think like a human brain? Could there ever be a machine that could solve problems? They knew a computer could process information very fast. Would a computer ever think faster and better than a person? Would there ever be a machine that could think for itself?

Voice 2

The game of chess was chosen as a good test of this idea. Chess is 1,500 years old. It is played all around the world. In another Spotlight program, "A History of Chess", we showed how chess became popular around the world. Chess requires planning, intelligence, and the ability to react to changes. If a computer could think about something as complex as chess, it may be able to solve more serious problems of the world.

Voice 1

When a person plays chess she uses skill and emotion. She may even use distractions like moving her feet or hands. She will study who she is playing against. She will learn their favourite moves and plans. But computers do not use any of these things. Computers do not react emotionally. They do not lose concentration. Computers use mathematics to play chess. They look at millions of possible moves in a few seconds. Then they choose the best move based on which move is likely to give the best result.

Voice 2

Because early computers were so simple, they could only defeat a beginning chess player. By the 1970s writing programs for computers had become serious work. The power and speed of computers increased quickly. Every two years, computers became two times as fast as they used to be. More powerful computers permitted more complex chess programs. In the 1970s, computers could defeat ninety five percent [95%] of all chess players.

Voice 1

By the 1980s computer chess programs reached a new level. Many people had computers in their homes. They played chess against their computers. This pushed computer program writers to make better programs. At this time, computer chess programs could defeat almost all very good players. However, no chess computer had ever beaten a World Chess Champion. This was seen as the final test of human intelligence against computers.

Voice 2

This was not because chess computers were not trying. There were many public chess games between World Chess Champions and computers. From 1983 to 2005 Gary Kasparov was one of the best chess players in the world. Many people consider him the greatest chess player ever. For ten straight years he was the World Chess Champion. It was Gary Kasparov who played against many of the chess computers.

Voice 1

In 1989 a computer called "Deep Blue" was considered the most powerful chess computer in the world. Kasparov played against it and defeated it easily. But every year computers were still getting more powerful.

Voice 2

One reason chess computers could not win was because they played using only mathematics. Chess is not only about mathematics. There is planning, emotional reaction and the ability to change attacks. But over the next few years, computer program writers got smarter. They wrote programs that wasted less time. They created a list of past chess games that acted like a memory for the computer. This made chess computers harder to defeat.

Voice 1

It took until 1996 for Deep Blue to win a single game. Once again it was against Kasparov. But they were playing a total of six games. Kasparov was able to learn from this first game. He changed his method and continued on to win the most games. Deep Blue lost the match. But its single win was first time a chess computer had won a game against a World Chess Champion.

Voice 2

Only one year later, Kasparov played Deep Blue again. The computer was two times as fast as it had been the year before. This time the result was different. Deep Blue won the six game competition, three and a half games to two and a half games. Deep Blue was the first computer to ever defeat a human World Chess Champion.

Voice 1

Does this mean that Deep Blue thinks like a human? Not exactly. Deep Blue has amazing processing power. It can perform complex mathematics very quickly. However, it can only do one thing: play chess. It cannot stand, walk, or jump. It cannot recognize a face, welcome a friend, or share a secret. Each of these things would take a new computer, just as complex as Deep Blue.

Voice 2

It is very costly to make a computer like Deep Blue. It costs many millions of dollars. Deep Blue has amazing power. But it would take thirty [30] computers like Deep Blue to equal the average human brain. This is a witness to God's amazing design and creation of the human brain. There is much we do not know about the human brain. But we do know that it is amazingly powerful.

Voice 1

Computers are powerful tools. They are able to doing things we cannot. But so can other tools, like a knife. It can also do things that we cannot. Computers will continue to get faster. Someday computers may be equal to the human brain. For now, we know that computers will be used in more things, things we cannot even imagine. This will change how many people work, play, and live. But it will not replace the human sense of wonder, the very thing behind the creation of the computer in the first place.

Voice 2

The writer and producer of this program was Adam Navis. The voices you heard were from the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. Computer users can hear our programs, read our scripts, and see our word list on our website at www.Radio.English.net. This program is called "Computers and the Human Brain." Thank you for listening. Goodbye!