The Benefits and Hazards of Computers

When you first start out--particularly if you are an introvert-computers seem like they are ideal opponents. They do not judge you, are not as intimidating, and they play in an apparently consistent manner without the nerve-wracking insanity that humans seem to carry. You can play a lot of games in a hurry and not feel to bad about losing or wasting someone else's time, and you can easily experiment with different strategies or varied handicaps.

Indeed, at the very start of playing many people will advise to play either IGOWIN or gnugo on a 9x9 until you can beat it consistently when taking black, just to get some of the fundamentals down pat.

The problem is that, as you get stronger, computers can ingrain bad habits. Computers are rarely good at strategy and seem to have--at best--fuzzy notions of attack and defense. They tend not to invade locations that should be invaded, and will get confused by even simple things that do more than one thing at once.

Most critically, they lack variability. In Hapki Do we practice against people of different heights, builds, and genders because what works on one person may not work on another, or may need modification. A technique that brings someone's arm across your body may not work the same way if the person is substantially taller or shorter. Or girl who is shorter and heavier may have an easier time with some techniques than a guy who is tall and lean, and vice-versa.

So its good to play them occasionally--to screw around or to get used to the basics--but after that we need to get to playing real people. Playing people online, playing people in person: just playing people and not becoming dependent on playing against any one individual or computer's "style."