Go Online

Go as Communication
April 28, 2003
By Roy Laird

The E-Journal recently reviewed "Go as Communication," in which a teacher, using simplified rules, brings delight and good fellowship to disabled children and adults, opening up a whole new world of social and interpersonal possibilities for growth. Go on the Internet, on the other hand, is profoundly anonymous. We have no idea who we are playing -- male or female, young or old, whether we have played before, how they
look, how they act and speak. This anonymity has its advantages. Most players prefer not to discuss their games in progress, with their opponent or anyone else. But every club has its own Geraldo, drifting from game to game, assuming permission to speak, giving away one's position or plans. "Where's the 'MUTE' switch on this unit?" we all
think while dealing with an uninvited kibitzer. The silence and anonymity of Internet play solve this problem, while creating another. Sometimes we want to interact with our partners, for example when playing a good friend, a stronger player or a particularly interesting game. Currently, there is only one way to do this, which is extremely  cumbersome, but at least one programmer is working on the problem.  Most people know that thousands of "ham" radio operators chat with each other by radio from all over the globe, 24 hours a day. For years, ham operators have played chess by reading off the coordinates of each other's moves. (One wonders if a go game has ever been completed in this way?) Nowadays, through the wonders of modern computing, ham operators no longer need a radio! Using software available from Echolink at
<http://www.synergenics.com/el/>, they can chat directly over the computer, like a telephone but without the long-distance charges. So two ham operators could agree to meet at a server at a given time, hook up through Echolink, and chat while they play. There is a catch: you must be licensed by the FCC as an amateur radio operator. If the idea appeals to you, AGA member and ham operator Antin Ninno writes that "since there is no longer a Morse code proficiency requirement for new hams, it's very easy to pass the FCC license exam. Just take the 50-question multiple choice test, pay the $10 fee, and you're a ham for life. It's easier than learning to play Go! You can buy the exam study guide at any RadioShack store. It has all the exam questions and answers to study."  Thanks Anton! What about the rest of us? Sooner or later, audio and
video Internet linkups will become widely available. Maybe they will be built directly into servers and clients, or widespread online telephony could solve the problem. In the mean time, Sungjin Kim is working on the problem with a program he calls Go Black and White, at <http://www.gobw.net/>. His current goal is to build a direct P2P linkup
with enabled speech, and he hopes to establish server where more interaction will be possible between players. In a recent column, Bill Cobb pointed out the importance of words. Talking about our games helps us to establish useful categories and to grasp other elements of the game more deeply. Computers can isolate us, but they can also help us make new friends through communities of the like-minded, such as the world of online Go. There's something fun about the impersonal nature of Go on the Internet  now, but ultimately it's a non-stop Turing test -- how do you know whether you're playing a person or a computer program?  

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