Try and solve all the possible moves in a game of chess
mathematically. To challenging to attempt even for a computer. That is
if you could create a computer program that can calculate these possible
moves. The number of moves changes based upon the game. It is usually
a finite number, but difficult to figure.
To further explain, a player starts out with ten moves (8 ponds and 2
knights). Then it is the other players turn. He now has the same amount
of moves, but as the game progresses the move of the opposing player will
help determine what moves are possible.
So even if the number of moves in the game is finite and the possible
moves is usually finite, determining the number of possible moves that
any piece will move on either players side is impossible to calculate.
Each move creates a new set of possibilities, but what if someone were
to calculate every possibility for each of the different possibilities?
That would lead to a huge number but still be finite. (usually???)
So what does this matter. Most games that we play are set up this way.
Take any card game and find not only the possibility of a card being dealt,
but try to calculate the outcome of the entire hand during the game. But
what is important to note here is not just the probability and determining
the outcome, but how the events occur.
The chess board is a good analogy for time. Meaning that certain segments
of a chess game show what happens as a person moves through time. What
you have at any time during the game is a set of given moves. The player
makes an thought out decision on which move he is to make. Imagine a player
making a wrong move. If he were allowed to reset the chess board moving
each piece in reverse order of how they were placed, this would represent
going back in time. He now can change the placement of certain key moves.
But there is no guarantee that this will change the overall outcome of
the game. He might change certain smaller events that effect the result
in different placements of the pieces. Or, he may change only one move
that results in a major change in the game. We know there are only so
many moves but each move has its own different possible moves and outcomes.
It would be impossible for any person to calculate.
So we make these moves or decisions everyday. We experience them linearly.
But what if there were key events, special moves, mathematical patterns,
geometric relationships, new dimensions, or anything else imaginable.
Remember this next time someone challenges you to a game of chess.
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