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From: knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen)
Newsgroups: net.startrek,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Followup to 'His was the most human...'
Message-ID: <741@ihwpt.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Feb-86 18:43:19 EST
Article-I.D.: ihwpt.741
Posted: Fri Feb 28 18:43:19 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Mar-86 18:34:38 EST
References: <1661@mtgzz.UUCP> <624@riccb.UUCP> <1406@gitpyr.UUCP> <683@oliveb.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 45
Xref: watmath net.startrek:4890 net.sf-lovers:12575

> In article <1406@gitpyr.UUCP> chen@gitpyr.UUCP writes:
> >The reason for this inquiry is that the scene you've described sounds
> >very similar to a scene in "My Enemy, My Ally" by Dianne Duane
> >(her latest, published Star Trek novel).  There, *Kirk* and Spock were
> >playing a new variant on chess, "4-D" chess.  When it looked like Kirk
> >had had it and was about to resign, McCoy asked if he could take over,
> >did so, made some changes, (don't ask to me explain exactly what but it
> >was believable) and promptly beat Spock.
> >
> >Before you go jumping about how McCoy shouldn't have been able
> >to beat Spock if Kirk couldn't, remember that the game was a
> >*new* variant with a very complex wrinkle that neither Spock
> >nor Kirk had ever played before.
> 
> The reason it was believable was in the nature of the game.  Unlike
> standard chess where all positions are visible this was more like
> "battleship" or poker in that the "position" of many of the opponents
> pieces were UNKNOWN.  Thus a major portion of the game was in trying to
> outguess an apponents stratigy.
> 
> McCoy explained that he used information gleened from Spock's
> (confidential) psychological medical records and exploited a weekness in
> Spock's personality.
> 
> This was entirely consistent with previous stories in which Kirk has
> pointed out that, in a game like poker, logic isn't enough.  It is also
> consistent with McCoy's constant poking at Spock's psychology.
> 					Jerry Aguirre @ Olivetti ATC

It is also ironic that what McCoy did was very LOGICAL,
based on the medical records.

I'd rather you had said that Spock couldn't beat Kirk because
he couldn't think enuf like a human to outguess Kirk's
strategies -- whereas another emotional, intuitive, etc.
human (like Bones) could.

In fact, Spock might lose often since he simply couldn't
imagine all the stupid, crazy random things a human might
do.  Somehwere I recall an SF story where some people
beat a big computer/robot/Vger/whatever for that reason
at something really important -- wish I could recall
the details.
	mike k