Re: [ba-poker] Bots

["James Kittock" <james(deleted the rest)>]

> I think the problem is that the term "bot" is being
> thrown around nowadays as a scare word, sort of like
> "terrorist."  Once used for the most serious of
> threats, the term is being trivialized by it's
> overuse.  Now, any group fighting a regime is power is
> labelled a "terrorist organization."  We have
> eco-terrorists, internet-terrorists state-terrorists,
> etc. 

Yes, we even had teachers labeled as terrorists
by the Secretary of Education.  Ah, polemics.

> Similarly "human-assisted bots" are the greatest
> threat to online poker, even bigger than say the
> Patriot Act.  

It is pretty clear that the biggest threat to
online poker is its dubious legal status.

Having said that, there are games where a "bot",
that is, a computer program, makes the game 
relatively pointless for humans.  Scrabble is
a good example--well-written Scrabble programs
generally crush the best human players.  

Whether this will ever be the case in poker
is unknown at this time, but I have to believe
that eventually poker-playing bots will be better
than poker-playing humans.  When this will
happen, and how much it will matter, is open
to speculation.

Whatever happens with bots, I think that human-only
contests will be the most *interesting*.  The only
way I can see to guarantee human-only contests
is to play face-to-face.  Online, nobody knows you're
a dog, as the old cartoon went.

--j