Oliver Roeder | Seven Games: A Human History | Talks at Google

Oliver Roeder discusses “Seven Games: A Human History“, a group biography of seven enduring and beloved games—checkers, backgammon, chess, Go, Poker, Scrabble, and bridge—and the story of why and how we play them. In “Seven Games“, Oliver Roeder charts the origins of these games and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Oliver Roeder has been a senior writer at FiveThirtyEight and editor of The Riddler, a collection of the site’s math puzzles. He studied artificial intelligence as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and holds a PhD in economics focused on game theory. For more information on Oliver, please