"So you think Kevin is like this supercomputer?"
"Only partially, mostly he's much better."
Anna looked at me frankly disbelieving yet curious, "Can you explain that?"
"That computer in 1997 was downloaded with every chess strategy known to man. Plus it used its own probability software to run each scenario move to determine what strategy was best to counter move and it did it really fast."
"How is Kevin better?"
"I haven't taught Kevin any strategies or move combinations. I showed him the functional moves that each piece can make on the board that's all. He isn't using any strategy I know of, to defeat me. Strategy doesn't even come into it, everything he's done relies on a probability rating with the ability of making a real time analysis of the data and a corresponding choice. His strategy of play is endlessly variable and completely undefeatable."
She looked very confused now, "I don't understand? What makes him more special than the computer?"
I thought about how to explain it, "Ever watch the poker games on TV and see the probability rating percentages that they assign each hand?"
She nodded yes.
"Well imagine that each piece on this board is like a poker hand. Kevin is monitoring every piece all the time. He's getting data specific to each piece. Mine and his and more importantly he's making real-time decisions that are spread over multiple platforms of layering. The first move I make is a signal that I've already lost the game bearing a miracle taking place. With the movement of my pawn forward he has an instant probability rating for each piece on the board like the computer does, but he goes deeper than that. He has a probability figure for every conceivable move all the way through to the end of the game, based off of one move. His probabilities aren't high in the beginning, but by the time we actually start taking each other's pieces I'd say he has a one hundred percent probability of victory. His path to that victory can change, but the result is the same. I can project what the ballpark probability for the pieces on the board are at any given point in time. That's basic chess playing, but what he's doing effortlessly, is on a whole different level. I could start him out with half the pieces I have and he'd still likely win, it would just take longer."
Anna stared at Kevin for a moment as he watched a bird in a nearby park tree. The depth of Kevin's smartness, which she had known existed but not to the degree that it was, still surprised her. People in general tended to view Kevin as less in terms of ability and worth. To find out that he was actually more advanced than perhaps anyone was a mother's dream come true. But with that dream came responsibility.