Alex Tabarrok discusses a machine (well, a computer program embedded in a toy) that plays 20 questions. 20 questions is one of my favorite games, so I thought I’d try it out–here’s the link. It’s a nicely designed site and was easy and fun to play.

I was disappointed that it didn’t guess either of my items–but then again I’m an experienced 20 questions player. As in charades (my all-time favorite game), the key is to not simply think of the first thing that comes into your head, since that’s the first thing people will guess. An obvious principle, but people usually don’t go to the trouble. So I guess I’m not surprised that it can usually guess people’s items.

I also realized that the q.20q.net people play by different rules than I do. In the rules as I always understood them, the thing to be guessed had to be a famous item. Thus, “a coat” or “a wool coat” would not work, but “the coat that Sir Walter Raleigh laid down for Queen Elizabeth” would be OK. Also, “Aunt Lucy” is no good, but “Luther Burbank” would be OK. But not “Luther Burbank’s foot”, since that’s not famous in itself. Anyway, this game expects items along the lines of “a stick” (that was its guess of one of my items).

But, hey, it’s just a computer program, so I shouldn’t be too hard on it!

Hangman also

The site also has a Hangman game, but I was disappointed to see that it only would allow me to guess its words. I wanted to see if it could guess some of my stumpers.

I bet a computer could be really good at Jotto, though.