23:03, Wednesday 4 Sep., 2002 Link

Fields (in the magnetic sense, or gravity) would be a better metaphor for rules, as opposed to nodes and arcs, the following of a road map. The Earth circles the sun, but it's not a path it's following, it's a balance between forces. I'd like to see a modern, simple, tic-tac-toesque field theory game. Maybe chess is like this -- some moves are allowed, but so foolish they might-as-well be forbidden. Some moves carry a greater cost (because they break strong anti-stupid-move incentives) but might well pay off. Sometimes the best way forward is obvious. And the incentive fields shift and change with every move and every piece of knowledge about the opponent. I wonder how a chess-playing computer using a field theory of pushes and pulls would work, instead of the current brute force approach? I understand that's how trained chess players play anyway, by recognising patterns, actual and potential, and the struggles between them. Is chess the simplest this kind of game can be?