Tired of playing Free Cell and Solitaire on the computer?
Looking for something a little more interactive that won’t necessarily require that you interact with anyone?
Then Twenty Questions may be just the distraction you are looking for.
Based on the old game of the same name, the new Internet variation claims to possess artificial intelligence, which allows it to continually learn as it plays.
In other words, it is always getting smarter.
The game is relatively easy to learn — even if you aren’t always getting smarter — and a great way to pass down time — or company time — on the computer.
To begin, you go to the Web site, www.20Q.net, and follow the instructions.
Essentially, the game begins with your thinking of an object. Your adversary, let’s call him Hal, then asks you the first of 20 questions:
“Is it classified as Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Other or Unknown?”
After you respond, Hal continues to ask you a series of basic questions answered with a Yes or No. Because all answers can’t be given in such black and white terms, you are also allowed to choose qualifying responses such as Doubtful, Sometimes, Rarely, etc.
If Hal can’t guess what you are thinking of in 20 questions, you win, although the contest may go on for another 10 questions or so. This extension supposedly is to allow Hal to learn.
Anyway, with warnings that Hal was pretty formidable, and a screwdriver in my pocket in case he tried to kill me, we began.
My first object is iPod.
Hal asks:
Is it hard? I say yes.
Is it metal? I say no.
Is it made of plastic? I say yes.
Can it be heard? I say yes.
At this point, just five questions in, I figure Hal is onto me. But he continues.
Does it help accomplish tasks?
Is it heavier than a pound of butter?
Is it used with a computer?
Then, it asks a trick question. Do you use it at work? I say yes, but I ask Hal if we can keep that between the two of us. He doesn’t respond.
Hal continues to home in, but I may throw him off with my answer to question No. 14: Does it belong to a family? I say yes, but I may just be buying into Apple’s advertising here.
At question No. 17, Hal guesses that I am thinking of a hand-held computer. I say no, and I can’t tell you how much I enjoy shooting Mr. Smarty Pants down.
Hal seems nonplused about being wrong, and immediately asks two more questions as if nothing happened:
Is it small?
Is it square shaped?
At this point I figure I am home free, until, at what should be question No. 20, Hal says:
I’m guessing it is an MP3 player?
Darn.
I immediately demand a second game, and this time I’m not kidding around. The object I am thinking of is spool of thread.
Right from the start I can tell I have Hal on the defensive with this one. He asks me questions like:
Does it fit in your wallet?
Does it have writing on it?
At question No. 17, Hal guesses arrow. Wrong.
At question No. 20, he guesses clothes peg. Wrong.
At Question No. 29, he guesses chalk, and at question No. 30, shoe polish. Wrong. Wrong and I win.
After conceding, Hal produces a list of other possibilities. At the top of the list is, spool of thread. I find this a bit unnerving.
We enter game 3, the rubber game, the undisputed championship on the line. I’m playing for keeps, now. I decide to go with an object that is so obvious I’m sure Hal would never think that I would think of it.
My object? A breadbox, as in “Is it bigger than a breadbox?,” a classic Twenty Questions question.
Hal is really on the ropes in this game. By question No. 13 he is asking if the object I am thinking of weighs more than a duck.
At question No. 16 he even asks if it is smaller than a loaf of bread. I have all I can do to not laugh out loud.
At question No. 20 Hal guesses ironing board, giving me the W. He then asks 10 more questions, guessing bird cage at one point and basement at another. With his final question, he guesses breadbox.
I tell him that is the right answer, and then log off immediately.
Computers can be sore losers.
The Hartford Courant is a Tribune Co. newspaper.
