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A very well-written catalog of various Go variants, none of which (at this time -- there are several, of which QuantumGo is one -- I have asked him to start a new section -- which I doubt he will do -- Quantum Go, as well as other randomness-adding systems -- could be considered a form of "Jokergo".) involve randomness (modulo theories of mind, and groups of minds, cooperation, negotiation, etc) is the World Of Abstract Games section on Go variations, maintained by Joćo Pedro Neto.
Following the format of the summaries on that page, I must report that Quantum Go as described below takes far too long on a full size board, but a ten-by-ten is small enough to be interesting, and good for teaching beginning fighting, as the situations are small enough to be effectively read and explained by the stronger player, and they must be re-read whenever a mutation occurs.
There has been at least one person who has contacted me concerning purchasing quantum go software -- there is none at this time, but i suppose if someone were to fund the venture I could write some.
David
Nicol presents his latest weird idea:
Quantum Go differs from normal Wei-Chi in this way: every turn, each
position on the board has a small chance of "mutating"
as if it was a memory element struck by a gamma ray, or some other
normally dependable component of a system that has
inexplicably failed. Mutated positions randomly become open,
white or black. Due to the mutations, the Ko rule is not needed
in quantum Go.
What you need:
Mutations are modeled, on a 19x19 go board, with two uniquely colored
marked twenty-sided dice (0-19), called the "position dice," and
one six-sided die called the "control die."
All three dice are thrown until a Stop Mutating condition appears.
Each dice throw causes one mutation or a stop-mutations event.
Stop mutating events are, a 0 on either d20, or a 6 on the d6, which provides a 4/15 chance
at each throw of the dice that there will be no more mutations that phase.
Otherwise, the 2d20 indicate a random position on the 19x19 board and
the d6 controls how it mutates, according to this chart:
On smaller boards, or if the above-described scheme results
in too many mutations, 4 and 5 also stop muitations. Or experiment,
using a d4, a d8, or a d12 for the
control die with your own chart. Put your results
on a web page, tell me about it,
and I will gladly link to it from here. Bonus points for anyone who
provides an accurate statistical description of the model
related to current physics theory about spontaneous particle appearance
in complete vacuum. Hint: try to determine
how large a 1x19x19 block of interstellar vacuum, in
meters, is required for the particle appearance rate to match the
above dice scheme, at one mutation phase per second.
The mutations phase occurs between
piece placement and piece removal.
Normal go consists of two players taking turns, each turn having two
phases, place a piece and remove captures if any. For a discussion
of normal go, I reccommend Bob
Sloane's Go Lessons. Quantum go introduces the mutation phase, which
occurs after a piece is played,
before captured stones are removed.
End of Game
The game ends by agreement, or one player can definitively win by pointing
out that greater than half of the points on the board (181 on a
19x19 board) are occupied by stones of their color. Stones removed
from the board are returned to their bowls, as in Chinese rules.
How does all this relate to Fault-Tolerant
Design?
Go has been praised as 100% deterministic. Quantum Go adds a random
element to the play. Go serves well as a metaphor for complex
systems (such as computer programs) which are 100% deterministic, in
which everything works right, provided that everything works right.
As
the saying goes, "if houses were constructed like computer programs,
one woodpecker could end civilisation.." In Go as well, stable structures
often become precariously complex. The winner of the game is often
the one who can correctly read the complexity. Redundancy and
back-up systems are not required because of the 100% deterministicity.
The flock of woodpeckers released by the mutation phase ends all that.
It is my belief that Quantum Go provides a conceptual framework for
designing fault-tolerant systems, as go-stone structures able to remain
on the board even with mutations happening must tolerate, or co-exist
with, faults, or situations which do not occur in normal "faultless" Go. Artificial Intelligence?
Another possible application of this variant is in the field of computer go: By providing a new dimension to the game, that of stability, a more general case of
game is defined, in which normal Go is the degenerate case of zero instability.
Writing artificial intelligence programs that can play good Quantum Go
may lead to AIs that can play better normal go.
Copyright and Licensing
the name "Quantum Go" and the game described on this page are copyright 1998 David Nicol,
computer programmer in Kansas City. All applicable intellectual property laws apply. Anyone
may link to this page. Reprinting the rules described here on paper or electronicly
requires licensing and prior agreement, so e-mail me first. Evaluating Quantum Go for more
than thirty days or use in a classroom setting requires purchase of a license for each
player/student.
Nontransferable permanent licenses to play this copyrighted game cost USD $1.00 each and
can be obtained with this form:
This page last updated on July 26, 1998.
a Go board,
two twenty-sided dice, one six-sided die.
The mutation phase represents faults.
a list of go variants