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From: sramacha@udel.EDU (Satish Ramachandran)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: The Success of AI (continued, a
Message-ID: <650@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: Fri, 30-Oct-87 14:45:09 EST
Article-I.D.: louie.650
Posted: Fri Oct 30 14:45:09 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Nov-87 22:48:47 EST
References: <133@glenlivet.hci.hw.ac.uk> <8300008@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: sramacha@udel.EDU (Satish Ramachandran)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 19
Keywords: ping-pong, tennis...

In article <8300008@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu> goldfain@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>Who says that ping-pong, or table tennis isn't a sport?  Ever been to China?

Rightly put! Ping-pong may not be a spectator sport in the West and hence,
maybe suspected to be a 'sport' where little skill is involved.
But if you read about it, you would find that the psychological aspect
of the game is far more intense than say, baseball or golf! 
The points are 21 each game and very quickly done with...(often with the
serves themselves !)
Granting the intense psychological factors to be considered while playing
ping-pong (as in many other games), would it be easier to make a machine play
a game where there is a lot of time *real-time* to decide its next move
as opposed to making it play a game where things have to be decided 
more quickly, relatively?
Satish

P.S. Btw, ping-pong is also a popular sport in Japan, India, England, 
Sweden and France.