Where search breaks down

A simple puzzle has a few thousand possible states. Computers search them in milliseconds. Easy.

Chess has more possible games than atoms in the observable universe (10^120 vs 10^80). Even the fastest computer can't search them all. Language is worse: infinite ways to continue a sentence. Search alone fails.

Search can look intelligent when the world is small and well-shaped. But intelligence isn't just "always move closer." Sometimes you must move away first.

The early optimists solved the easy version and thought the hard version was more of the same. It wasn't.