Man Verus Machine – A Classic Tale

The concept that pro golfer Rory McIlroy, making real time adjustments to conditions, can out compute a machine designed to hit perfect shots every time is a classic one. In 1996 Russian chess champion Garry Kasporov beat IBM’s best computer 4-2. I suppose you can track this legend of man versus machine all the way back to Trojan horse.

This is a great commercial. I know it’s a take on the PGA Tour’s These Guys are Good campaign, but it’s a nice iteration of it. Funny and competitive, a lot like two good friends on the course, talking smack and challenging one another.

1984 and 2013

The recent NSA leaks have people thinking a lot about big brother and the power of machines. Some fear the government has gone too far. Others relax are over-confident that all of these machines and surveillance tactics somehow make us safer.

But in the end man always wins over machine. Just like wooden horses didn’t take over military operations, just like computers aren’t chess champions, and just like machines aren’t running the European Tour… we don’t have anything to worry about with machines.

They are just machines.