Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Deep blue / Our century was

Here in my place and time
And here in my own skin I can finally begin
Let the century pass me by, standing under the night sky
Tomorrow means nothing
I was only a child then
Feeling barely alive when
I heard a song from a speaker of a passing car
Praying to a dying star, the memories fading
I can almost remember singing

We watched the end of the century
Compressed on a tiny screen
A dead star collapsing and we could see
Something was ending
Are you through pretending?
We saw the signs in the suburbs
You could have never predicted that it could see through you
Kasparov, Deep Blue, 1996
Your mind's playing tricks now
Show's over so take a bow
And leave it in the shadows

Hey
Put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey
Put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

by Arcade Fire

Deep Blue versus Kasparov, 1996, Chess game which a computer played against a human being. It was the first game played and the first time that a chess-playing computer defeated a reigning world champion under normal chess tournament conditions (in particular, standard time control; in this case 40 moves in two hours).