3 ms·

Scrabble is not about words,anymore than monopoly is about business. Scrabble is arranging a random selection of tiles into combinations in such a way that sco

by steve19 11y ago

Scrabble is not about words,anymore than monopoly is about business. Scrabble is arranging a random selection of tiles into combinations in such a way that score is maximized. The tiles could have hexadecimal numbers on them and could be played against a randomly generated dictionary of scored combinations. Much like you can play chess with dragons figurines instead of castles or storm troopers instead pawns. It was as much to do with words as chess has to do with war in the middle ages.

wainstead 11y ago
> The tiles could have hexadecimal numbers on them and could be played against a randomly generated dictionary of scored combinations. This is an intriguing assertion. The words of a natural language are far from randomly generated. While I can invent new words like 'wobblery' or 'fandogonkified' they still follow patterns familiar from other words. If I understand the Chomsky idea correctly, we are born with structures in our brain ready to accept a new language. A human might have a hard time memorizing a dictionary of randomly generated words in hexidecimal -- he or she would have to resort to mnemonic techniques (peg lists, memory palace, etc) to memorize that dictionary but it could be done. Further, it could be done by any human who was dedicated to the task. Whereas the system you describe involves brute force, much like the Deep Blue approach to winning chess. And it's been shown that a group of people collaborating together can defeat computers at chess! I think a lot of interesting research could be done here (if it hasn't already) and it would not surprise me if your assertion could be proven wrong (but I generally agree with it).
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  The system GP describes doesn't involve brute force, it's just an accurate description of Scrabble. It's about arranging tiles with point values in a way score is maximized. That the scoring positions are not uniformly random but follow some implicit language rules is something that helps people memorize / derive the proper arrangements, but otherwise does not impact the game in any way.

by steve19 11y ago

wainstead 11y ago

> The tiles could have hexadecimal numbers on them and could be played against a randomly generated dictionary of scored combinations. This is an intriguing assertion. The words of a natural language are far from randomly generated. While I can invent new words like 'wobblery' or 'fandogonkified' they still follow patterns familiar from other words. If I understand the Chomsky idea correctly, we are born with structures in our brain ready to accept a new language. A human might have a hard time memorizing a dictionary of randomly generated words in hexidecimal -- he or she would have to resort to mnemonic techniques (peg lists, memory palace, etc) to memorize that dictionary but it could be done. Further, it could be done by any human who was dedicated to the task. Whereas the system you describe involves brute force, much like the Deep Blue approach to winning chess. And it's been shown that a group of people collaborating together can defeat computers at chess! I think a lot of interesting research could be done here (if it hasn't already) and it would not surprise me if your assertion could be proven wrong (but I generally agree with it).

TeMPOraL 11y ago
The system GP describes doesn't involve brute force, it's just an accurate description of Scrabble. It's about arranging tiles with point values in a way score is maximized. That the scoring positions are not uniformly random but follow some implicit language rules is something that helps people memorize / derive the proper arrangements, but otherwise does not impact the game in any way.