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Confidence, in the sense that what used in the article (not as in the grade of confidence in a probabilistic sample), has an emotional component. Optimizing a f

Confidence, in the sense that what used in the article (not as in the grade of confidence in a probabilistic sample), has an emotional component. Optimizing a function is adjusting the free parameters to maximize a desired output.

kingkawn 11y ago
How is emotion not a feedback system for optimization other than the European prejudice against taking it seriously?
- adwn 11y ago
  Why should it be a "feedback system"? Maybe it is an unnecessary side effect of our complicated brains? For all we know, consciousness is a prerequisite for emotions, and I seriously doubt that a simple optimization algorithm exhibits consciousness.
  - sgt101 11y ago
    There's no need to doubt - you can see the algorithm written down, there are no symbols spent on consciousness. There are no surges in the network in response to anything apart from the inputs. The sheep, it does not dream - although sometimes I observe them writing on HN.
- sgt101 11y ago
  I think that you can discover this by experiencing lots of different emotions. People in distress (a strong emotion) often act in a way that we know as self destructive. People in love (another emotion) do dumb things. We see these insights in lots of cultural artefacts from all cultures that I am aware of - books, plays, songs, poems, stories, pictures and statues. If I was to get irritated with your comments would that be optimal?
thatcat 11y ago
Emotion is a variable for social groups and it's optimization could be built into an algorithm. Although algorithms don't have confidence as used colloquially, their optimizations could have "confidence intervals" to indicate the scope of conditions in which they have successfully optimized as determined through feedback. If then, the range over which their optimization functions apply are increasing in scope over time, they could be said to be gaining confidence.
- dr_zoidberg 11y ago
  See in the paper[0] Figure 3 near the end shows the neural networks used for the different scenarios. None of them have a "confidence" input or parameter. As for confidence intervals, that's why I made the distinction originally, the word is not being used in the "formal" sense, but in the emotional sense. [0] http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.05477v3.pdf http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.05477v3.pdf

kingkawn 11y ago

How is emotion not a feedback system for optimization other than the European prejudice against taking it seriously?

adwn 11y ago
Why should it be a "feedback system"? Maybe it is an unnecessary side effect of our complicated brains? For all we know, consciousness is a prerequisite for emotions, and I seriously doubt that a simple optimization algorithm exhibits consciousness.
- sgt101 11y ago
  There's no need to doubt - you can see the algorithm written down, there are no symbols spent on consciousness. There are no surges in the network in response to anything apart from the inputs. The sheep, it does not dream - although sometimes I observe them writing on HN.
sgt101 11y ago
I think that you can discover this by experiencing lots of different emotions. People in distress (a strong emotion) often act in a way that we know as self destructive. People in love (another emotion) do dumb things. We see these insights in lots of cultural artefacts from all cultures that I am aware of - books, plays, songs, poems, stories, pictures and statues. If I was to get irritated with your comments would that be optimal?

thatcat 11y ago

Emotion is a variable for social groups and it's optimization could be built into an algorithm. Although algorithms don't have confidence as used colloquially, their optimizations could have "confidence intervals" to indicate the scope of conditions in which they have successfully optimized as determined through feedback. If then, the range over which their optimization functions apply are increasing in scope over time, they could be said to be gaining confidence.

dr_zoidberg 11y ago
See in the paper[0] Figure 3 near the end shows the neural networks used for the different scenarios. None of them have a "confidence" input or parameter. As for confidence intervals, that's why I made the distinction originally, the word is not being used in the "formal" sense, but in the emotional sense. [0] http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.05477v3.pdf http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.05477v3.pdf