[Ads-l] centaur / reverse centaur

Tue Aug 4 04:49:20 UTC 2026

Using the label "centaur" for a half-human half-machine entity has
occurred repeatedly in the past. The label "centaur" has also been
applied to a half-man half-computer entity. Here is a selection of
citations illustrating the term's evolution.

Date: 1929
Book Title: The World Does Move
Author: Booth Tarkington
Chapter 24
Quote Page 283
Publisher: Doubleday, Doran and Company, Garden City, New York
Database: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/worlddoesmove0000boot/page/n8/mode/1up?q=centaur

[Begin excerpt]
A racing car on the way to some track contest swept perilously by us
at seventy miles an hour; we saw a monoplane "stunt flying" at a
faster speed than that, and thus were made aware of the presence of
the new athlete, the Twentieth Century's realization of the centaur
fantasy, half-man, half-machine, and at his topmost far greater hero
to the people than any Marathon runner, discus thrower, charioteer or
home-run batter has ever been.
[End excerpt]

Date of Preface: September 18, 1944
Book Title: Norway In World History
Author: Wilhelm Keilhau (Professor of Economics and Economic History,
University of Oslo
Chapter 12: Norway in the Modern World Conflicts
Quote Page 195
Publisher: Macdonald & Company, London
Database: Internet Archive

[Begin excerpt]
Through the centre of the painting a long row of tanks roll towards
the foreground; in each open turret a steel-clad warrior laughs
triumphantly, proud of his power; he is the modern centaur: half man,
half machine.
[End excerpt]

Date: 1955
Book Title: Catholicism in American Culture: Semicentenary Lecture
Series, 1953-54
Article: The Person in American Society
Author: Robert C. Pollock
Start Page 45, Quote Page 52
Publisher: The College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, New York
Database: Internet Archive

[Begin excerpt]
Living by a clock-determined schedule in a pre-arranged world without
a future, his imagination shackled, his being almost fatally chilled
by a cold metallic impersonalism, what can be the musings of such an
individual when he ponders the essential things in the rest-room. Is
it not likely, that at times, these matters seem almost as bizarre as
the animal cartoons he sees in the movies. Must he not feel like a new
kind of centaur, half man and half machine, who is doomed to live in
two worlds separated by an unbridgeable gap.
[End excerpt]

Date: 1970 Copyright (Conference Held in September 1969)
Book Title: Progress of Cybernetics; Proceedings of the First
International Congress of Cybernetics, London, 1969
Editor: J. Rose
Article: The past and future of cybernetics in human development
Author: W. Grey Walter (Burden Neurological Institute, Bristol, U.K.)
Start Page 45, Quote Page 54
Publisher: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, London
Database: Internet Archive

[Begin excerpt]
Even in the utilitarian field of prosthetic design the replacement of
a hand or a leg with a "new! improved!" version may require direct
coupling to the nervous system and this again may suggest
"improvements" at a higher level. We have already played with a system
to control a computer directly from the electric waves that precede a
voluntary decision, and know that our control would be better if our
surgical friends would implant electrodes in suitable parts of our
brains. We can imagine quite easily the evolution of a hybrid robot, a
cybernetic Centaur or even Minotaur — a man half machine, machine half
man.
[End excerpt]

Date: October 29, 1969
Newspaper: San Francisco Examiner
Newspaper Location: San Francisco, California
Article: A Look Ahead to 2003
Author: Max Lerner
Quote Page 40
Database: Internet Archive

[Begin excerpt]
The turn of the century will doubtless see the new generational
offspring of the computer. I agree with what Gropius said to his
fellow-architects: That machines are to be used, not fought — used to
free men of drudgery and release their imagination.

But Stanley Kubrick’s grotesque parable of the sick computer, in his
film "2001," must continue to haunt us. We don't want a new centaur,
half-man, half-computer. Part of the struggle for mastery will be for
the human mastery of the automatic mechanisms.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 3:12 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Wikipedia has a pertinent article titled "Advanced chess".
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_chess
>
> The names "advanced chess", "cyborg chess", and "centaur chess" have
> all been used. After a quick examination I did not see an early
> citation for "centaur". It seems that Garry Kasparov used the term
> "advanced chess".
>
> Garson
>
> On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 2:56 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Interesting topic, Dave. Here is a three-message thread in 2001 that
> > uses "Centaur" with the desired sense. The third message explains the
> > meaning of "Centaur". The thread suggests that "Centaur" was already
> > in use.
> >
> > While searching I found that there was a chess playing computer
> > program called "Centaur" circa 1999, but I do not believe that program
> > was a human/machine hybrid.
> >
> > Usenet discussion message,
> > Timestamp: Dec 2, 2001, 11:51:15 AM
> > Newsgroup: rec.games.chess.computer
> > From: Gian-Carlo Pascutto
> > Subject: Fritz 7 Analysis Board
> > Database: Google Groups Search
> > Accessed August 3, 2026
> > https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.chess.computer/c/n5cphEASajQ/m/tsV-p9cAt4sJ
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > I find it most useful in Centaur/Advanced chess, where it can be used
> > to check the variants the engine produces for deep hidden threats.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Usenet discussion message,
> > Timestamp: Dec 2, 2001, 2:06:41 PM
> > Newsgroup: rec.games.chess.computer
> > From: Knob Nose
> > Subject: Fritz 7 Analysis Board
> > Database: Google Groups Search
> > Accessed August 3, 2026
> > https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.chess.computer/c/n5cphEASajQ/m/PtQZToTMxGgJ
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > What is "Centaur/Advanced chess"?
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Usenet discussion message,
> > Timestamp: Dec 4, 2001, 10:41:20 AM
> > Newsgroup: rec.games.chess.computer
> > From: Jeroen ;-}
> > Subject: Fritz 7 Analysis Board
> > Database: Google Groups Search
> > Accessed August 3, 2026
> > https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.chess.computer/c/n5cphEASajQ/m/A2tElVX5cZMJ
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > > What is "Centaur/Advanced chess"?
> >
> > A centaur is a mythical creature with the head and torso of a man
> > joined to the body of a horse. So it is a combination of two. It has
> > been translated to the combination of man and machine, operating as
> > one.
> >
> > Centaur chess or more common, advanced chess, is a player playing
> > chess with (legal) computer assistance.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 11:18 AM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > This sense is not in the OED.
> > >
> > > The terms are currently being flacked on various podcasts by Cory Doctorow, of "enshittification" fame, who has a new book on the subject.
> > >
> > > There are undoubtedly antedatings to be found. I have yet to confirm (or refute) the attribution of the term to Gary Kasparov, although this sense of "centaur" does seem to have arisen in the world of chess.
> > >
> > >
> > > Harmon, Amy. "Queen, Captured by Mouse: More Chess Players Use Computers for Edge." New York Times, 6 February 2003, B6/6. ProQuest Newspapers.
> > >
> > > "Mr. Kasparov champions the idea of 'advanced chess,' in which humans compete by using sanctioned computer software during the game, and he has participated in one such game. The future of chess, Mr. Kasparov and others suggest, lies not in the competition between man and machine, but in their fusion.
> > >
> > > "On the Internet site of ChessBase, a leading publisher of chess programs, a Centaur Room is set aside for people who want to play as a team with their computers."
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Holtel, Stefan. "From Computer to Centaur: Cognitive Tools Turn the Rules Upside Down." KM World, February 2015, 18/1–2. ProQuest Magazines.
> > >
> > > "In 2005, an advanced chess tournament took place that allowed any combination of humans and computers. Steven Cramton and Zackary Stephen, who only held amateur status in Elo (named after physics professor Arpad Elo) chess rankings, took their regular desktop computers and squeezed them for their purposes. They won that tournament against chess masters with superior chess ratings and even superior hardware and software. Both players had leveraged their expertise to align computing power to win chess games. They created a superior team comprising humans and machines. In essence, a new form of chess intelligence had emerged. "Kasparov concluded, 'Human strategic guidance combined with the tactical acuity of a computer was overwhelming.'
> > >
> > > "Kasparov coined the term 'centaur' to describe that human-machine combination. The Greek mythological creature consists of a human torso with head and arms and the body and legs of a horse."
> > >
> > >
> > > Samothrakis, Spyridon. "Artificial Intelligence Inspired Methods for the Allocation of Common Goods and Services." PLOS One, 16.9, September 2021. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257399. [ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0257399 ]( https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0257399 )
> > >
> > > "Current trends point to 'reverse centaurs' when it comes to automation. Given that it is easier to manage humans using algorithms (e.g. organise taxi drivers) vs performing the actual task (e.g. autonomous cars), there is a certain market tendency to extract profits from over-exploitation. Instead of machines aiding humans (i.e. what is called a 'centaur' in chess), we run the risk of economies of very low wages where humans help machines (i.e. more akin to a very boring and intensive production line, hence 'reverse centaur’)."
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org