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Algebra and pattern matching are basically the same thing, aren't they? To find a solution to an algebraic problem, you pattern match on the problem structure a
by Retra 10y ago
Algebra and pattern matching are basically the same thing, aren't they? To find a solution to an algebraic problem, you pattern match on the problem structure and see what falls out. To solve a pattern matching problem, you perform algebraic transformations to isolate the pattern being matched.
>Algebras, like numbers, does not exist outside our heads
Models are called models because they are not the things they model. Anything that is a model is an approximation. This doesn't mean they don't exist outside our heads. If that were true, there wouldn't be any computers.
- visarga 10y ago> Algebra and pattern matching are basically the same thing The difference is that pattern matching is done on a model of the world provided by words, instead of applying it directly to senses. In reinforcement learning there is an approach to model the world first, then run RL on top of the model, because that would provide a way for the agent to imagine possible outcomes without the need to try them first in actuality. Model based RL is a refinement of direct RL and is essential for thinking.
- ChoHag 10y agoPattern matching is done on literally every sensory nerve impulse the brain receives.
- dschiptsov 10y agoThe meaning of the term pattern-matching here is "mechanical" rather than "mathematical". Think of shapes of the proteins in an enzime. Their structure defines behavior of an enzime, and only a molecule that match (with physical shape and electro-chemical properties) will do the thing. Similarly, it seems, a higher level behavior is defined by physical structure of neurons, a highly-specialized circuitry evolved by the process of trial and error, which happen to be good-enough for its purpose. There is no algebra involved. It is a electo-mechanical massive-parallel machine.