Hey Bobby memory of an old science fiction story popped into my head that I thought was rather interesting considering our discussion of AI. It's an old story and goes back maybe 50 years or more. Don't remember the name or the author but basically there's a war going on in space. Of course the computers are so much better and faster than humans, all engagements are fought not by the human crew but by the computers. Since each computer, whether the enemies or ours, knows the best course of action to take they also know the best course of action for the enemy computer to take. In other words, battles become extremely predictable.
A report comes up to the captain about some strange new very weird discovery which might change everything and introduce an element of unpredictability which could be advantageous or disadvantageous in a battle, but at least it would be a change.
It seems that one of the crewman has figured out a way to do calculations in his head. No computer required. It takes the captain a long time to believe that this is even possible and to actually ask the man to demonstrate.
He proves that he can actually make these calculations. If the calculations are very complex, he can use symbols to "write them"by hand and then do the calculations.
This is incredible! Human beings able to do things with numbers instead of just asking a computer?
It reminds me of the introduction of pocket calculators. Real world stuff in this case. There was bitter opposition by many to removing slide rules and hand calculations. They pointed out that when humans actually did the calculations instead of just asking a computer they became familiar with probable outcomes. If the computer gave a wrong answer because of an error in entry, it wouldn't look right. The experienced would know something was wrong and they checked the data. I don't know how much this problem has actually materialized but it is true that people have lost much of their capacity to estimate if they do numbers in a professional capacity. Recall that "computer" was originally a term that meant a person who did math by hand.
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