u/Rude-Pangolin8823

My mind had been racing with ideas of how this technology could be applied back home all morning.

On our home planet application would obviously be restricted, but in space and on the outer colonies? One could imagine tourists travelling to the colonies just to experience these technologies.

I had mentally constructed a model for how such technologies may possibly be ported even to our home world – but it would need refining.  This certainly would have to wait, however, as a curiosity that had enveloped me even harder was that of how they managed to make a system to play me at a game unlike any master of it could.

Mere moments after we had finished our food, we found ourselves in a warm, calmly lit room, similarly sterile to the previous architecture, this time the center being one large table.

Renard spoke calmly but carefully.

"So, as I assume you know by now, our computers are a very interconnected system."

I imagine he saw my gaze light up as I shot back almost by instinct.

 "The internet?"

Of course it had been heavily discussed from an external perspective amongst my peers back home - such an idea could not be kept secret even with the strictest of foreign policies. But no.

"Yes, but - think smaller. And I promise we'll get to that, it's just… A lot."

"So, as you know, we have computers for home use that enable all sorts of tools, interconnectivity and so on in our day to day - but there are large tasks that are too complicated even for those machines."

I sat down, my gaze locked onto it as Renard picked up a small model of a box off the side of the table.

"What do you do if something is not enough? Well, you add more of it. Things are hardly as simple as this in practice of course, but that is the surface level theory - a single, large system, built of many smaller computers, themselves built of many smaller units, and even lower, many smaller gates decoding individual operations."

I restlessly stood up, empty-eyed blinking accompanying it as I looked at Renard, my mind viciously racing as I looked at the small model he had constructed of such a construction. I spoke up in curiosity.

"But how does a very large computational system make it possible to design a system that can play games? It is an elaborate system with many rules and concepts, but it worked on the laptop you gave me - surely for a system such as that, these large computers are not necessary, as clearly they do not need..." I stopped mid-thought, Renard grinning as he allowed me the train of thought.
Suddenly, and to my great satisfaction, it clicked, my ears jittering in excitement.

"Is this large computing system used perhaps, not in the operation of this complex ruleset, but in its creation?"

Renard clicked his fingers, clearly some sort of affirmation, as he followed it up with a quite enthusiastic "Yes! Precisely. But I'm sure you wonder how. And there, it gets… complicated."

"A learning machine…" I said quietly to myself as the possibilities once again raced through me.

"So you told a machine to learn how to play the game, instead of telling it how to play the game." I stated this as fact, to which Renard affirmed.

"It is basically a weighted mathematical system. For this specific game, a few of our developers took their own free time to create the bot as a passion project over a few weeks. They started by making a very rudimentary, handcrafted player. One that can defend against some simple strategies and score at a decent rate when barely opposed. It does not have to be a good player, it just has to be fast. Then you put a learning machine against it."

I shortly wondered how quickly such a system could operate – considering to word the question but choosing against it as Renard continued.

"The learning machine plays at first randomly, but it slightly iterates based on its current strategy, seeing what works better. It is a fluid system, changing itself by assembling a set of numbers - these weights. They play many games, very quickly, and many at a time. The best iterations of this system are kept, the rest discarded."

"It takes thousands, if not millions of attempts to score its first points. But it improves. Eventually, you take one copy of this autonomous player and freeze it. Stop it from evolving, and pitch evolving players against it. Every once in a while you repeat this, as it evolves playing against itself. At the end, you are left with a system perfectly equipped to score beyond what any simple algorithm can perform - because it is not an algorithm, but a learning system. As if a sapient player were given thousands of years to master the game and all its intricacies."

I sat down at that, not really sure what to think. Such a grandly complex system, yet in concept so elegant. A system so vast it defies understanding. What else could this concept be applied to? Can you make anything autonomous? At which point does this mechanical brain cross into sapience itself, if ever? Do the humans have the answers to these questions? I wished to ask every single one of them, already overwhelmed beyond reason. With one last remark, Renard almost made me roll over in awe.

"These supercomputers can also predict weather."

"What?"