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The code's fairly messy, but I hope the blog post and online demo will be enough to give the absolute beginner a good idea of how GAs work. One day I hope to a
by user24 16y ago
The code's fairly messy, but I hope the blog post and online demo will be enough to give the absolute beginner a good idea of how GAs work.
One day I hope to apply machine learning to the art of predicting real-life events. This is one small step towards that project, and I'd love to hear your feedback! - But it's 1AM now so I'll be offline for the next few hours. Here's hoping I wake up to a million upvotes! :)
- anathem 16y agoRelated: * http://www.jurisgalang.com/2010/10/13/breeding-images/ * http://www.jurisgalang.com/2009/02/01/breeding-strings/
- yters 16y agoUnfortunately there is something called the no free lunch theorem. Puts a significant constraint on using machine learning for real-life prediction.
- Groxx 16y agoTo that end, I propose a new acronym: The TISATATTANSTAAFLT (pronounced: "tiz-a tat tan staa fult") The "There Is Such A Thing As The There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch" Theorem.
- tel 16y agoThen again, all ML eventually is used for real-life prediction, so you ought to be able to buy a lunch if you really want one. The GA here is a fun start that'll introduce a training algorithm; there are plenty of gradient-aligned steps forward.
- yters 16y agoSure, I'm just saying ML, just like its forebear AI, doesn't live up to the hype. Lunch is very expensive.
- tel 16y agoProbably true. I'm not a big fan of the term ML due to the hype associated with it. Statistics however, which is pretty near the same thing most of the time, has proven itself quite often.
- user24 16y agoYou never know until you try ;)
- yters 16y agoVery true. I try jumping off of cliffs all the time cuz this time I might just fly!
- user24 16y agoRight. I'll just give up then. It's a good job no-one wasted time trying to apply machine learning to speech recognition, cuz there's no free lunch you know. Or handwriting recognition. Or housing prices. Or game strategies. Thanks for letting us know that there's no point searching for a solution via ML. Phew!
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- IsaacL 16y agoAren't genetic algorithms and machine learning distinct? I'm far from an expert, but my understanding is that with ML you're either trying to find a function (supervised) or clusters (unsupervised), whereas GA are a generic optimisation technique. Maybe you could generate a bunch of different versions of an ML algo (say, ANN with different numbers of hidden nodes and starting weights), and use GA to evolve the best one. Doesn't seem like the best technique, though.
- user24 16y agoYeah, I've heard of using GA to find good weights for an ANN. GAs are general optimisation techniques, but 'evolutionary computing' is very closely linked to AI and ML.