ESP Biography

LUCAS BAKER, Stanford CS student and Go believer

Major: Computer Science

College/Employer: Stanford University

Year of Graduation: 11

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Lucas first discovered Go as a high school junior and developed an unquenchable enthusiasm for the game, which fortunately did not diminish when he discovered that he would have needed to start playing at the age of 10 to have a hope of becoming a Go professional. From his humble vantage point as a Western aficionado of this deeply subtle Eastern game, he watches with admiration when he sees a match between masters, and with joy when he sees one between beginners who have just learned the rules of the game. He hopes to build an artificially intelligent Go player with the power and wisdom to achieve lifelong benevolent dictatorship of the Earth after it defeats the world's strongest Go player*. In the meantime, he will take advantage of every opportunity he receives to convert the uninitiated and convene with those who know the game already.

*Please check back for progress on this undertaking in approximately 20 years.

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

M405: The Game of Go in Splash! Spring 2009 (Apr. 04 - 05, 2009)

Since its creation over three thousand years ago, the ancient Eastern board game of Go has fascinated monarchs, warriors, poets, mathematicians, and millions of other enthusiastic followers with its profound strategic depth and intellectual beauty. At first glance a simple game of few rules, a contest between Black and White based on surrounding one's opponent and capturing territory, Go in fact holds the potential for magnificently complex and fascinating variations - including vastly more possible games than the number of protons in the universe. Would you would like to find out how to play the world's oldest strategy game, far more widespread in the East than chess ever has been in the West? Would you like to discover for yourself the allure of Go as a pastime, a passion, a philosophy, a metaphor for life? Well, now you know where to begin.

H98: The Game of Go in Splash! Fall 2008 (Oct. 18, 2008)

Go is one of the world’s oldest board games and despite its simple rules, is highly strategic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(board_game)