Star Trek: The Next Generation/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

** Information theory estimates that it would take approximately 10^90 years to brute-force all the possible combinations and permutations in chess using modern computing technology. Even assuming that Data's brain is a ''quadrillion'' times more powerful a computer than the 21st century's best (and while he's obviously ahead of current computers by many orders of magnitude, putting him a full 15 orders ahead of contemporary is still a generous estimate), that still leaves us with one thousand trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion (10^75) years' worth of number-crunching to completely solve chess. As a comparision, the estimated remaining lifespan of the universe is somewhere around 30 billion years. ShortEven version:granted Data might bethat a science-fictionsuitably supercomputer,sophisticated butalgorithm beingcan 100%significantly unbeatableprune inthis chessproblem isby apreliminary jobdiscarding thatof evena sci-fimajority supercomputers don't haveof the sizepossible for,game unlessstates youas bringsub-optimal in(i.e., somethingthere ridiculousare likea Deeplot Thoughtmore fromdumb the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Troi's win is still ''extremely unlikely'',moves in that she's taking on somebodychess withthan atthere leastare grandmastersmart skillmoves in chess), while she herselfwhich is nothow amodern-day rankedchess-playing playerprograms that anyone knows ofwork, but itsthat's still mathematicallynot a ''possibleperfect'' solution.