A review in the recent Economist about Ian Ayre’s book Super Crunchers began: “Every time a world-class chess player loses to a computer, humans die a little.” And I would add that every route setter grips their wrenches a little tighter.

Super Crunchers is a book about the death of intuition and creative decision-making in various professions. The name of the game here is data, from baseball to teaching, medical diagnostics, air travel pricing, and screenwriting. And why not routesetting?

Futurists have long predicted the demise of the human worker to the mega-processing power of the computer. Even though automated decisions have been slow to materialize, they are gaining ground in the various professional sectors or our economy. This is enough to give one pause as to the future of the professional route setter.

Equation vs. Expertise

A route is essentially made up of a series of individual moves strung together in a unique sequence. Each of these moves could be electronically cataloged along with each hold and wall angle. A simple algorithm plugged into a computer does the rest. All that’s left is for some poor hapless ladder monkey to go screw the holds to the wall.

So where does that leave route setters of the future? Well don’t start hanging up your buckets yet. The act of routesetting is as much art as it is craft. This aspect alone will save setters from the clutches of a computer program. Computers could never match a Van Gough or Picasso — or in our case a Godoffe or Yaniro.

With more and more clinics being offered by experienced professionals, route setters will become more talented and dream-up more stylized ways to get climbers up the wall. Sure a computer could efficiently design a cookie-cutter route, but if climbers want originality, spontaneity, and grace in their routes then we will have to accept the slower and less predictable human setter.

Coefficient of Fear

Algorithmic equations cannot make up for the passion, ultimate creativity and experience of a human setter. And what of the other uniquely human elements of a climb? One cannot write an equation for fun or deduce the coefficient for fear; how does one calculate flow? These factors are not quantifiable by a computer but are only registered by the delicate nerve endings of human emotion. This human quality is what setters leave behind in a finished route.

Can an automated program created by some nerd at MIT achieve the same result? Doubtful. Would a computer-generated route be a soulless affair with no hint of humanity or nature? Most likely.

But as one reviewer of the book put it: “Super Crunchers asks whether statistical methods are more accurate than the more intuitive conclusions drawn by experts, and consistently concludes that they are.”

Only time will tell if the demands of business and economy will win out over the human spirit and artistic mastery.

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