MENACE: the pile of matchboxes which can learn

Check out Matt Scroggs’s original blog post about MENACE and in the amazing Chalkdust magazine.

Play against the online version of MENACE:

This is the original 1961 “Experiments on the mechanization of game-learning” by Donald Michie.

Thanks to Katie Steckles for organising our stall at the Manchester Science Festival and Antonio Benitez for giving us the space.

The MENACE crew were:
Alison Clarke, Andrew Taylor, Ash Frankland, David Williams, Katie Steckles, Matthew Scroggs, Paul Taylor, Sam Headleand and Zoe Griffiths

Get your MENACE data here!

CORRECTIONS:
None yet. Let me know if you spot anything!

Thanks to my Patreon supporters who made this possible! Here are the random subset I read out during the video:

Ben White
Scott Robinson
Nelson Emerson
Amy Sandland
Neil McGovern

Support my channel and make more videos like this possible!

Music by Howard Carter
Filming and editing by Trunkman Productions
Audio mastering by Peter Doggart
Design by Simon Wright

MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician

[BazzFreeman]

So, when I lose a game I can honestly say "I am dumber than a box of matches"

[HagenvonEitzen]

9:20 That suggests to build Menace A and Menace B - and have them both learn by only playing against each other

[CractusJohn]

"Can a Match Box?"
"No, but it can learn."

[kxuydhj]

"I never thought i'd have a sense of pride over a sentient pile of matchboxes, but here we are."
This line was great enough by itself, but he really perfected it by saying "This must be what procreating feels like".

[Quintkat]

This is secretly one of the best and simplest videos explaining machine learning

[kayleighlehrman]

MENACE, for when the machine goes first, and
DENNIS, for when the human goes first

[thejunkman]

Obligatory quote "The only winning move is not to play"

[cosmicjenny]

"This must be what procreating feels like."
UM. Okay, Matt...

[linamishima]

Menace doesn't die, it just learns that the only way to win is not to play :D

[EtzEchad]

I remember that Martin Gardner article (I believe he published it in Scientific American) and I built this and played it as a teenager in the 60s. This was one of the first steps I took toward becoming a Computer Scientist.
That was fun!

[samrichardson]

As a dad, I can tell you that procreation carries a wide range of emotions, with pride being a small part. Fear and frustration are much more common.

[MarcelPogorzelski]

Corner is by the way the best opening move against humans because it's an unusual move. It's still a drawn game if played right, but people who aren't familiar has a greater chance of doing the wrong move.

[gloweye]

I'd say, start with like 4 of each color in each box, so it's harder to kill off routes early in development. It should learn a bit slower, therefore keeping it more fun at the convention, and it should end up knowing *all* Paths to Victory.

[KarnKaul]

8:33 @Matt, that's kinda what programming feels like too! The satisfaction of your watching your theory autonomously running, and correctly... Bliss!

[thecakeredux]

This is absolutely amazing. I love the cross-over of high and low tech and this is the perfect synergy.

[Kaixo]

Wow, this is, in a way, machine learning brought outside of the machine!! I am currently doing a project on Neural Networks for school and this fits so perfectly well with that project! It basically is machine learning! Love it, never thought it would be possible with matchboxes tho...

[Zephyrio]

I remember in elementary school, thinking myself pretty good at the tic-tac-toe. But then a friend beat me with a corner starting move. I was quite amazed and have played with a corner starting move ever since. I'm surprised at the disparity between greens and blues in the starting box. Corner move is pretty awesome...

[pannegoleyn]

I love this! When I was 9 or 10, I got a copy of Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Carnival", which contains his piece about matchbox computers, and I was absolutely fascinated by it, though I never tried to build one. Forty-something years on, it still sticks in my memory -- I know exactly where I was (in a dinner queue at school) when I read it! It's great to see it in action.
(Actually, I've been mourning for that book, unable to find it for years, and it's been out of print. Happily, a couple of years ago, an ex-colleague from my first job met my ex-partner, and returned it -- apparently I lent it to him sometime in the early 90s -- and I've very happily re-read it quite recently 🙂 )

[Laceykat]

Back in the 1960s Reader's Digest had a "Book of Adventures" that had stories, puzzles, games and activities, all in hard bound.
One of the activities was building a "computer" that would play "Hex-a-pawn." This was a game that used the nine square board (3x3) and three pawns on each side. The paws moved as traditionally and the object was to get your color in your opponent's home row.
Like this experiment, you had matchboxes with the various board configurations on them and inside were colored beads to indicate the move. I came across this book in the 1970s (computers were becoming more of a reality by then) and spent a snowed-in weekend building the "machine" and playing the game. It was a lot of fun and taught me how programmes worked (basic anyway) and how a computer CAN make a mistake.

[SchutzmarkeGMBH]

I love that it can die out. The way to win is not to play at all.