Playground

by Richard Powers

The world with all its bright and surprising contents was created out of boredom and emptiness. Everything started by holding still and waiting. The perfect story to tell such a dark and anxious child.

The world with all its bright and surprising contents was created out of boredom and emptiness. Everything started by holding still and waiting. The perfect story to tell such a dark and anxious child.

The man-made pieces were ugly. They had killed a bird. Just looking at them made Ina sick. But she couldn’t throw them away. Where could she throw them, anyway, where they wouldn’t drift back on the tide to kill something else?

The man-made pieces were ugly. They had killed a bird. Just looking at them made Ina sick. But she couldn’t throw them away. Where could she throw them, anyway, where they wouldn’t drift back on the tide to kill something else?

A leatherback, she’d once read, must cry two gallons of water every hour, just to keep its blood less salty than the sea.

Everyone needs to eat, but few people are aware of who sets the table. Makatea l’Oublié, a few books call it: Makatea the Forgotten. But that’s a misnomer. You can’t forget what you never knew.

Everyone needs to eat, but few people are aware of who sets the table. Makatea l’Oublié, a few books call it: Makatea the Forgotten. But that’s a misnomer. You can’t forget what you never knew.

From underneath, looking up into the filtered sun, she found the Loner’s pale belly surprisingly hard to make out—a ghost as diffuse as his black dorsal silhouette would appear to anyone looking down on him through the darkening waves. Countershading—Thayer’s law: a trick that fish had used for the last hundred and fifty million years to make themselves disappear both into and against the light.

From underneath, looking up into the filtered sun, she found the Loner’s pale belly surprisingly hard to make out—a ghost as diffuse as his black dorsal silhouette would appear to anyone looking down on him through the darkening waves. Countershading—Thayer’s law: a trick that fish had used for the last hundred and fifty million years to make themselves disappear both into and against the light.

Without the ability to feel sad, a person could not be kind or thoughtful, because you wouldn’t care or know how anybody else feels. Without sadness, you would never learn anything from history. Sadness is the key to loving what you love and to becoming better than you were. A person who never felt sad would be a monster.

Saint Ignatius himself liked to quote Aristotle: Give me the child until the age of seven and I will show you the man.

Saint Ignatius himself liked to quote Aristotle: Give me the child until the age of seven and I will show you the man.

life would never again be so saturated in possibility. But the teachers who formed me, the girls I thought I loved with such passion, the classmates whose respect I so desperately sought: they’re all like characters in a novel that I can barely remember and have no need to read again.

life would never again be so saturated in possibility. But the teachers who formed me, the girls I thought I loved with such passion, the classmates whose respect I so desperately sought: they’re all like characters in a novel that I can barely remember and have no need to read again.

there was no other way to understand the size of the planet, the extent of the universe, the playing field of life.

there was no other way to understand the size of the planet, the extent of the universe, the playing field of life.

But out of sight of land, human time vanished, and human geography with it. Evelyne loved that, beyond anything else she’d ever loved: the feeling that the globe was still mostly unknown, mostly unknowable. That she was in the middle of life, while still being nowhere at all.

But out of sight of land, human time vanished, and human geography with it. Evelyne loved that, beyond anything else she’d ever loved: the feeling that the globe was still mostly unknown, mostly unknowable. That she was in the middle of life, while still being nowhere at all.

His people had done a thing no modern navigator could match. His ancestors had slid into the immensity of the Pacific in tiny, hand-paddled canoes, without astrolabes or lenses, without compasses, with no maps or charts except those in their heads. Even without writing, they had dispersed through an ocean larger than all the continents combined and settled every inhabitable speck of land in it, specks scattered like stars in a mostly empty universe.

His people had done a thing no modern navigator could match. His ancestors had slid into the immensity of the Pacific in tiny, hand-paddled canoes, without astrolabes or lenses, without compasses, with no maps or charts except those in their heads. Even without writing, they had dispersed through an ocean larger than all the continents combined and settled every inhabitable speck of land in it, specks scattered like stars in a mostly empty universe.

they had leapt across this vastness so fast that islanders spoke languages that could still be understood by distant kin thousands of miles away. The world’s greatest seafarers still shared common myths, common tools, common customs, practices, and beliefs. A clan had spread across a third of the globe a thousand years and more before the West’s most advanced ships managed a single crossing. They formed the farthest-flung cultural group on the planet. And all the anthropology and genetics and historical science available to Evelyne’s own scientific tribe could not say how the feat was done.

His people had done a thing no modern navigator could match. His ancestors had slid into the immensity of the Pacific in tiny, hand-paddled canoes, without astrolabes or lenses, without compasses, with no maps or charts except those in their heads. Even without writing, they had dispersed through an ocean larger than all the continents combined and settled every inhabitable speck of land in it, specks scattered like stars in a mostly empty universe.

Add that to your table of definitions for what it means to be a human being. We make things that we hope will be bigger than us, and then we’re desolate when that’s what they become.

Of all the things we humans excel at, moving the goalposts may be our best trick. The moment advanced AIs get good at that, they’ll have passed the real Turing test.

Of all the things we humans excel at, moving the goalposts may be our best trick. The moment advanced AIs get good at that, they’ll have passed the real Turing test.

Ina took us to the marble-clad art museum—the “whited sepulchre,” as Rafi called it—and showed us how to dance in our minds with a painting that looked like food stains on an old work shirt. The thing would have incensed me as fraudulent had I come across it a month before meeting her. Now it became a mirror, a weird cousin to play with, a thing that offered up a meaning that wasn’t mine until I looked closer.

Ina took us to the marble-clad art museum—the “whited sepulchre,” as Rafi called it—and showed us how to dance in our minds with a painting that looked like food stains on an old work shirt. The thing would have incensed me as fraudulent had I come across it a month before meeting her. Now it became a mirror, a weird cousin to play with, a thing that offered up a meaning that wasn’t mine until I looked closer.

“Where I come from, the artists came first and all the gods followed.” I could never quite follow her, and it made me nervous. “Okay, fine. But what does that mean, exactly?” Rafi smiled at my anxiety but did not mock me. “Don’t worry, Toddy. We got you. It means love and do whatever you want.” Ina wagged her finger in the air. “It means the artists made the gods!”

“Where I come from, the artists came first and all the gods followed.” I could never quite follow her, and it made me nervous. “Okay, fine. But what does that mean, exactly?” Rafi smiled at my anxiety but did not mock me. “Don’t worry, Toddy. We got you. It means love and do whatever you want.” Ina wagged her finger in the air. “It means the artists made the gods!”

What lesson did I learn on that first day? That being safe would always get you killed. And so I traded safety for more school And when I had to make a choice, I chose School and freedom over home and race. All that schooling to teach me how to be Another bruise on my mother’s unschooled face.

What lesson did I learn on that first day? That being safe would always get you killed. And so I traded safety for more school And when I had to make a choice, I chose School and freedom over home and race. All that schooling to teach me how to be Another bruise on my mother’s unschooled face.

“A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.” Up until about five p.m. each day, I was playing to win. From then until well after midnight, when my best work got done, the game turned infinite. I wrote out a little slogan in stick figures on an index card and pasted it on the bezel of my monitor: Find the moves that the rules forgot to outlaw.

“A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.” Up until about five p.m. each day, I was playing to win. From then until well after midnight, when my best work got done, the game turned infinite. I wrote out a little slogan in stick figures on an index card and pasted it on the bezel of my monitor: Find the moves that the rules forgot to outlaw.

“Aristotle said that happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.”

“If two choices are impossible to choose between, it means they have equal merit. Either choice can have your belief. It doesn’t matter which you choose. You shed one chooser and grow into another.”

Profunda contained within itself well over ten trillion parameters. It had digested most of the Internet and studied many libraries full of physical documents and evidence. Ten trillion parameters, as it turned out, were enough to turn a learning machine into a historian, an engineer, a business consultant, and even a social scientist.

Profunda contained within itself well over ten trillion parameters. It had digested most of the Internet and studied many libraries full of physical documents and evidence. Ten trillion parameters, as it turned out, were enough to turn a learning machine into a historian, an engineer, a business consultant, and even a social scientist.

Profunda launched into an exploration of animal rights, animal standing, and animal personhood. It conceded how many kinds of deep intelligence populated the depths surrounding the island. It spoke of the problems inherent in a culture where only humans were considered sacred or significant. It pointed out that in the foundational cultures of Polynesia, other creatures had a divinity and a genius all their own.

Profunda launched into an exploration of animal rights, animal standing, and animal personhood. It conceded how many kinds of deep intelligence populated the depths surrounding the island. It spoke of the problems inherent in a culture where only humans were considered sacred or significant. It pointed out that in the foundational cultures of Polynesia, other creatures had a divinity and a genius all their own.

everyone on the island was much more informed about the profound changes that the seasteading venture would bring. But facts do little to alter a person’s temperament. By the time the mayor convened the meeting for the vote, few people had changed sides.

everyone on the island was much more informed about the profound changes that the seasteading venture would bring. But facts do little to alter a person’s temperament. By the time the mayor convened the meeting for the vote, few people had changed sides.

Did the humans win or lose this one? Surely it took more intelligence to build a machine that could beat the best human player than it took Kasparov to play his best game of chess. Still, it makes me sad. Something has ended. Will people keep playing a game they know they can no longer dominate?

Did the humans win or lose this one? Surely it took more intelligence to build a machine that could beat the best human player than it took Kasparov to play his best game of chess. Still, it makes me sad. Something has ended. Will people keep playing a game they know they can no longer dominate?

a Go board. The hand-printed message on the back read: YOU’LL NEVER WIN THIS ONE. If he meant a machine beating a master at Go, almost every expert in the world agreed.

a Go board. The hand-printed message on the back read: YOU’LL NEVER WIN THIS ONE. If he meant a machine beating a master at Go, almost every expert in the world agreed.

It dawned on me: People in my field always talked about “human equivalence” as the gold standard for machine intelligence. But the smartest people in the world gave away their data for free without bothering to read the contract. Data was life. Little in the world was more valuable. If giving away your data was the benchmark, maybe artificial general intelligence was going to be easier to achieve than we thought.

It dawned on me: People in my field always talked about “human equivalence” as the gold standard for machine intelligence. But the smartest people in the world gave away their data for free without bothering to read the contract. Data was life. Little in the world was more valuable. If giving away your data was the benchmark, maybe artificial general intelligence was going to be easier to achieve than we thought.

Deep Blue had beaten Kasparov by brute force. Human programmers specified the best openings, defined strong moves, described how to control the board and gain material, and spelled out how to win the endgame. Deep Blue just took those declarative instructions and applied massive computation to look farther down the branching tree of moves and countermoves than any human could. But the new machines did something wildly different. They were learning on their own, with reiterated reinforcement under limited supervision. They combed through continents of data on their own, finding patterns, generalizing, and drawing conclusions that even their trainers couldn’t see. They were learning how to play simply by playing. And these deep players learned the most extraordinary things. They started to drive cars. Without being told a single thing about cats except whether a given picture showed one, they learned how to recognize any cat from any angle under any conditions. They figured out how to translate text from one language to another with uncanny fluency, without being taught a single rule of grammar or usage. They learned these things the way a child would, by weighing the evidence and adjusting the strengths of the connections in their networks of neurons until their brains began to generalize solutions.

Deep Blue had beaten Kasparov by brute force. Human programmers specified the best openings, defined strong moves, described how to control the board and gain material, and spelled out how to win the endgame. Deep Blue just took those declarative instructions and applied massive computation to look farther down the branching tree of moves and countermoves than any human could. But the new machines did something wildly different. They were learning on their own, with reiterated reinforcement under limited supervision. They combed through continents of data on their own, finding patterns, generalizing, and drawing conclusions that even their trainers couldn’t see. They were learning how to play simply by playing. And these deep players learned the most extraordinary things. They started to drive cars. Without being told a single thing about cats except whether a given picture showed one, they learned how to recognize any cat from any angle under any conditions. They figured out how to translate text from one language to another with uncanny fluency, without being taught a single rule of grammar or usage. They learned these things the way a child would, by weighing the evidence and adjusting the strengths of the connections in their networks of neurons until their brains began to generalize solutions.

This was the first time that a lot of people realized that the stock market had become a variant on Texas Hold ’Em with no relation to fundamentals. I never did like poker. Too much psychology, never my strong suit.

This was the first time that a lot of people realized that the stock market had become a variant on Texas Hold ’Em with no relation to fundamentals. I never did like poker. Too much psychology, never my strong suit.

As much as anyone, he’d masterminded the digital revolution. And there he stood onstage, impressive in his command of historical processes, declaring that freedom and democracy were incompatible.

As much as anyone, he’d masterminded the digital revolution. And there he stood onstage, impressive in his command of historical processes, declaring that freedom and democracy were incompatible.

After a few months of playing itself, AlphaGo was finding things in Go that humans had failed to come up with in the three-thousand-year history of the game.

After a few months of playing itself, AlphaGo was finding things in Go that humans had failed to come up with in the three-thousand-year history of the game.

“As Arthur C. Clarke has observed: ‘How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean.’ ”

“As Arthur C. Clarke has observed: ‘How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean.’ ”

“In a trial by jury, twelve people watch several characters perform a play, and then they vote on who has given the best performance. Anyone can win anything.”

“In a trial by jury, twelve people watch several characters perform a play, and then they vote on who has given the best performance. Anyone can win anything.”