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For example in the abstract: "adding new neurons to deep layers of artificial neural networks in order to facilitate their acquisition of novel information whil

by hmate9 10y ago

For example in the abstract: "adding new neurons to deep layers of artificial neural networks in order to facilitate their acquisition of novel information while preserving previously trained data representations" Nobody talks like this. In my head I read this sentence and I have to translate it to "we add extra neurons to existing networks so they can learn new information while remembering everything it already knows".

bmh100 10y ago
However, your statement is actually vague and ambiguous. "Extra neurons"? Input layer? Output layer? Just before a final, fully-connected layer? Somewhere in between? "Everything it already knows"? What does it know? Character probabilities, like a charnn? Image categories like in a CNN? Input distributions, like a GAN? From the abstract, I can immediately tell that this paper is about modifying deep auto-encoders in the hidden layers. From that, I can immediately understand that the paper is not about adapting to new input formats or output formats, but instead about inputs from a new distribution but in the same format. The author's intended audience, researchers and academics, do talk like this. They do so because it is quickly understandable and actually information dense, as indicated in my above paragraph.
- bjterry 10y ago
  Anytime someone uses the phrase "in order to facilitate" they are being more verbose than is necessary in order to signify their greater erudition. There is no meaningful semantic or technical distinction between "in order to facilitate" and "to help."
  - bmh100 10y ago
    I'll grant you that. It's simple wordiness.
- SubiculumCode 10y ago
  Academic Writing : The battle between precision and TL;DR
the8472 10y ago
> Nobody talks like this. > I have to translate it But you have to distinguish active and passive vocabulary. Words you commonly use and words you understand when others use them. And you also have to distinguish between written and spoken language. E.g. nobody would actually say "exempli gratia" but it's commonly used in writing. English is not my mother tongue and for me it mostly falls into passive vocabulary, but it is perfectly understandable. I don't have to mentally translate the whole sentence into simpler words before being able to grasp its meaning. And it's not like those words are obscure, they are just place 2 or 3 of most common uses among their respective set of synonyms.

by hmate9 10y ago

bmh100 10y ago

However, your statement is actually vague and ambiguous. "Extra neurons"? Input layer? Output layer? Just before a final, fully-connected layer? Somewhere in between? "Everything it already knows"? What does it know? Character probabilities, like a charnn? Image categories like in a CNN? Input distributions, like a GAN? From the abstract, I can immediately tell that this paper is about modifying deep auto-encoders in the hidden layers. From that, I can immediately understand that the paper is not about adapting to new input formats or output formats, but instead about inputs from a new distribution but in the same format. The author's intended audience, researchers and academics, do talk like this. They do so because it is quickly understandable and actually information dense, as indicated in my above paragraph.

bjterry 10y ago
Anytime someone uses the phrase "in order to facilitate" they are being more verbose than is necessary in order to signify their greater erudition. There is no meaningful semantic or technical distinction between "in order to facilitate" and "to help."
- bmh100 10y ago
  I'll grant you that. It's simple wordiness.
SubiculumCode 10y ago
Academic Writing : The battle between precision and TL;DR

the8472 10y ago

> Nobody talks like this. > I have to translate it But you have to distinguish active and passive vocabulary. Words you commonly use and words you understand when others use them. And you also have to distinguish between written and spoken language. E.g. nobody would actually say "exempli gratia" but it's commonly used in writing. English is not my mother tongue and for me it mostly falls into passive vocabulary, but it is perfectly understandable. I don't have to mentally translate the whole sentence into simpler words before being able to grasp its meaning. And it's not like those words are obscure, they are just place 2 or 3 of most common uses among their respective set of synonyms.