Hex Marks the Spot: Terra Nova and the New Frontier of Agent Intelligence
A strategy game is a cruelly efficient way to embarrass an intelligent system. Not because games are magic. Not because hexagonal maps secretly contain the meaning of cognition. They do not, despite what several overexcited benchmark papers might imply after a strong coffee. Games are useful because they compress decision pressure. They make planning visible. They force trade-offs. They punish agents that confuse local competence with strategic understanding. ...