Thread: Gamers found to be better adept at folding proteins than programs.

In a match that pitted video game players against the best known computer program designed for the task, the gamers outperformed the software in figuring out how 10 proteins fold into their three-dimensional configurations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/sc...ml?ref=science

Not that we needed vindication or anything, but this just goes to show that we gamers are a special breed. We are so damn good and the games we play train us so well, that we are better than computers.

In a comparison involving 10 separate protein-folding puzzles, video game players matched the results generated by software solutions in three of the puzzles, outperformed them in five cases and found significantly better solutions in two others, according to the scientists.

So, who is up for a rousing game of "Fold it"?

Damn, I've been wasting my time running "Folding at Home" all these years! TPGers could have cured everything by now!

after reading this article i'm hard pressed to agree or disagree. programs are written by humans, so to say humans are better than human programs seems to be a simple temporary state. at some point programs would overtake humans, and then maybe reverse again. no?

and this wasn't gamers specifically, it was whomever volunteered. some were probably gamers like us, others could have been anyone with 0 gaming experience (although by playing the game, you do become a gamer i suppose).

i'd also be willing to bet that some evolutionary programming here would go a long way in beating human thinking long-term. humans just can't adapt at the speed of light...

Originally Posted by Walkerxes

How's that editing going, almost done?

As a matter of fact, Yes!!

Originally Posted by (2)manno

after reading this article i'm hard pressed to agree or disagree. programs are written by humans, so to say humans are better than human programs seems to be a simple temporary state. at some point programs would overtake humans, and then maybe reverse again. no?

and this wasn't gamers specifically, it was whomever volunteered. some were probably gamers like us, others could have been anyone with 0 gaming experience (although by playing the game, you do become a gamer i suppose).

i'd also be willing to bet that some evolutionary programming here would go a long way in beating human thinking long-term. humans just can't adapt at the speed of light...

While true, about the humans programming it, you must remember. These are expert programmers, working with researchers in the field, who describe the actions and movements.

Wait so gamers are better than the equivalent of retard lizards? GUYS programs, like this, are programmed to perform basic Algorithms that perform very specific analysis on patterns. To say that we are greater than some odd 100k+ lines of code, with our some odd trilliions of brain cells-- and some odd 7 quadrillion paths of processing, is much like saying

Gamers are as smart as Spoons.