3 ms·
(1994) Minsky essay. > Could it be that our accumulations of counterexamples are larger and more powerful than our collections of instances and examples? Coul
by harshreality 9y ago
(1994) Minsky essay.
> Could it be that our accumulations of counterexamples are larger and more powerful than our collections of instances and examples? Could it be that we learn more from negative rather than from positive reinforcement?
It seems like major scientific breakthroughs involve both positive (oh, so THAT'S how to do it) and negative (well, we tried a, b, and c, they all failed or had bad consequences, so let's not do that again) knowledge.
I think the essay sets up a false dichotomy, or a false question, of "which is more important?"
It might be that everyday life depends more on negative expertise than positive expertise. You don't have to be top of your field or know things that nobody else knows, but if you make a major mistake you might get hurt, socially outcast, etc. But humanity's progress seems like it depends on both positive and negative expertise, inextricably intertwined.
- jamesrcole 9y agoAnother possibility to "both positive and negative are important" is that in some sorts of situations positive is more important and in some sorts negative is more important. Not saying this is the case, just mentioning that as a possibility.
- ThrustVectoring 9y agoIt really depends on the dimensionality of the solution space. With very high dimensionality, going "away" from a bad direction basically does not help.
- gumby 9y ago> I think the essay sets up a false dichotomy, or a false question, of "which is more important?" He sets the ground right up front: that expert systems (the state of the art at the time, though by then in decline) primarily consist(ed) of positive questions, and that that was a mistake. Essentially the dichotomy had been implicitly resolved in favor of the "positive questions are more important" side, and Marvin was arguing against that.