Leader_Today, a board game; tomorrow, the world

[地道表达]##

• The development of computer programs that can beat humans at games** has a long history — from the mastery of noughts and crosses in the 1950s to Deep Blue’s celebrated defeat of world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.
  [nought and cross]
  [解释] （零与叉）井字棋

• Data-crunching devices routinely notch up previously unthinkable victories.
  [notch]
  [解释]Informal To achieve; score【非正式用语】 得到；得分

• These are poaching some of the brightest computer scientists from universities, giving them the capacity and tools to pursue their heart’s desire.
  [poach]
  [解释]To cook in a boiling or simmering liquid；水煮，烹：在煮沸的液体中烹调，或在热水中煮

• One does not have to believe in some future tech dystopia to believe that governments and wider society should take the implications of these developments seriously.
  [dystopia]
  [解释] An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.
  反面乌托邦：一个想象中的由于掠夺、压迫或恐怖造成生活条件极差的国家和地区 （例如文学作品 美丽新世界）

• These are unlikely to be immune from commercial interests or indeed from the gung-ho enthusiasm of the researchers.
  [gung-ho]
  [解释]very eager to do something dangerous or violent:

• Some external scrutiny akin to that supplied in the case of genetics by the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is needed to protect the public from developments that may threaten more than the amour-propre of a South Korean Go champion.
  [amour-propre]
  [解释]Respect for oneself; self-esteem.See Synonyms at conceit
  自尊

[句式连接]##

• **The development of computer programs that can beat humans at games has a long history — from the mastery of noughts and crosses in the 1950s to Deep Blue’s celebrated defeat of world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.
  [分析] 主语从句的用法值得借鉴。平时一般会避免主语从句，容易造成句式头重脚轻的感觉。此句中由于宾语由补充宾语修饰-用破折号- 是句子的平衡感很好。
  [翻译] 能够在游戏中击败人类高手的计算机程序有着悠久的发展历史——从上世纪50年代掌握“井字棋”制胜之道，到1997年“深蓝”(Deep Blue；IBM研发的计算机——译者注）击败国际象棋世界冠军加里•卡斯帕罗夫(Garry Kasparov)。

• It also raises ethical questions every bit as profound as those posed by genetics.
  [分析] 学习比较级的表达
  [翻译] 这也引发种种道德问题，其深刻性丝毫不亚于**遗传学所构成的道德问题。

• Some external scrutiny akin to that supplied in the case of genetics by the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is needed to protect the public from developments that may threaten more than the amour-propre of a South Korean Go champion.
  [分析] 学习句子的表达方式。
  [翻译] 需要进行一些外部监督，类似于遗传学领域的英国人类受精和胚胎学管理局(HFEA)，以保护公众免受相关发展的威胁，这些威胁所牵涉的不只是韩国围棋高手的自尊

[专业知识]

• Deep Blue vs Garry Kasparov###

[解释] Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov was a pair of six-game chess matches between world chess champion Garry Kasparov and an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue. The first match was played in Philadelphia in 1996 and won by Kasparov. The second was played in New York City in 1997 and won by Deep Blue. The 1997 match was the first defeat of a reigning world chess champion to a computer under tournament conditions.

The 1997 match was the subject of a documentary film, The Man vs. The Machine.
来源：wikipedia

• Data-crunching###

[解释] The word crunching is also used in the field of electronics in connection with numbers or data, as in number-crunching or data-crunching, which means to minimise the amount of memory used by a computer to store a program or the amount of time it takes for the command to get processed and to achieve the desired results.
来源：http://references-definitions.blurtit.com/3757304/what-does-crunching-mean

• AlphaGo###

[解释] AlphaGo is a computer program developed by Google DeepMind in London to play the board game Go.[1] In October 2015, it became the first Computer Go program to beat a professional human Go player without handicaps on a full-sized 19×19 board.[2][3] In March 2016, it beat Lee Sedol in a five-game match, the first time a computer Go program has beaten a 9 dan professional without handicaps.[4] Although it lost to Lee Sedol in the fourth game, Lee resigned the final game, giving a final score of 4 games to 1 in favour of AlphaGo. In recognition of beating Lee Sedol, AlphaGo was awarded an honorary 9-dan by the Korea Baduk Association.

AlphaGo's algorithm uses a combination of neural networks, machine learning and Monte Carlo tree search techniques, combined with extensive training, both from human and computer play.
来源：wikipedia