I'm currently reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A Heinlein. It's a fifty year old science fiction classic, and it's extraordinarily prescient in how it talks about the subject of artificial intelligence.
But nowhere near as it is with its gambling advice. Mike, the book's self-conscious super computer, outlines a system for winning at the horses which has probably been profitable for all of the last fifty years, and certainly is with regards to Harry Cobden for the last two seasons.
Or as Mike puts it in 1967:
I often calculate odds on horse races; the civil service computermen frequently program such requests. But the results are so at variance with expectations that I have concluded either that the data are too meagre, or the horses or riders are not honest. Possibly all three. However, I can give you a formula which will pay a steady return if played consistently....Bet the leading apprentice jockey to place. He is always given good mounts and they carry less weight. But don't bet him on the nose.
But nowhere near as it is with its gambling advice. Mike, the book's self-conscious super computer, outlines a system for winning at the horses which has probably been profitable for all of the last fifty years, and certainly is with regards to Harry Cobden for the last two seasons.
Or as Mike puts it in 1967:
I often calculate odds on horse races; the civil service computermen frequently program such requests. But the results are so at variance with expectations that I have concluded either that the data are too meagre, or the horses or riders are not honest. Possibly all three. However, I can give you a formula which will pay a steady return if played consistently....Bet the leading apprentice jockey to place. He is always given good mounts and they carry less weight. But don't bet him on the nose.
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