Every time I think internet arguments can't get more ridiculous....

[conuly]

The topic du jour: Can four year olds learn to play chess well enough to beat out older, significantly more experienced players?

Apparently yes, because "every game has a luck factor", and also I "shouldn't expect realism from a superhero show". I contend that there is a qualitative difference between Kara being able to fly, and four year old Lena being an amazing, fantastic chess prodigy - but apparently this is a ridiculous, ludicrous proposition and makes Lex superhuman for losing to his baby sister. (Emphasis very much on "baby".)

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

"every game has a luck factor"

People who say that are demonstrating their ignorance of both chess and logic. Assertion is not proof, and chess does not have a 'luck factor' - it's all skill and no chance; that's the whole point of chess.

No, a human four-year-old cannot be a chess prodigy. The 'logic-circuits' of the human brain don't boot up until around age 7, and mastery of chess requires the ability to think many moves ahead, over a sustained time. I'll accept an 8-year-old unbeatable chess prodigy at the youngest, but even that's a stretch, and I would expect that 8-year-old's development to be impaired in most other areas besides chess. 'Savant' and 'polymath' are not the same thing.

You shouldn't expect realism from a superhero show, but you do have the right to expect plausibility in the context of the fictional universe. The Physics Police have no jurisdiction over superheroes, who fly, crash through buildings, walk through walls, run at jet-speeds, control magnetism, have lasers for eyes, etcetera etcetera - there's never been any semblance of a plausible explanation for how they can do ANY of these things. They just can, because they're superheroes - no different than Cuchulain in the Tain bo Cuilainge, really.

The Physics Police DO have jurisdiction over mere humans (of which Batman is patently not one, despite all his pretense) because otherwise the Suspension of Disbelief falls down like Jackson Town (https://youtu.be/IccbfvmsgTI). They also have jurisdiction over all non-magical animals and inanimate objects. Here's another classic depiction of the Suspension Bridge of Disbelief (https://youtu.be/G4Nx6FFQvZw): I am fine with the vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's monster, and all that, but NOT with the horses and the carriage.

Human four-year-olds cannot be chess prodigies any more than they can be basketball stars: no matter how much potential a person may have, human development occurs on its own timetable. That applies to brain development as much (if not more) as it does to bone and muscle.

Kara is Kryptonian, right? Then of course she can do all the canon things Kryptonians do. But if (as I presume) Lena is human, she has all the limitations humans have, and one of them is that children think as children, not as adults.

[conuly]

Human four-year-olds cannot be chess prodigies any more than they can be basketball stars: no matter how much potential a person may have, human development occurs on its own timetable. That applies to brain development as much (if not more) as it does to bone and muscle.

Hear, hear.