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An effective generic strategy to locating missing objects is the Bayesian search theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_search_theory https://en.wikiped
by catalogia 7y ago
An effective generic strategy to locating missing objects is the Bayesian search theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_search_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_search_theory
It's been used to find several lost ships, planes, and things of that nature. Of course, a casual application of this approach essentially boils down to "look first in the places you think it's most likely to be."
- alfalfasprout 7y agoThere are so many assumptions baked into a bayesian search inside your own home that it's unlikely to help though. Plus it relies on at least one hypothesis containing the correct search space (i.e the object lies within the search space).
- catalogia 7y agoI agree it's probably not very helpful in this case, though there are some general lessons you could take from it that would be helpful. Considering the likelihood that it would have already been found or could never be found if it were in a particular location can help you prune your search. e.g. > "It's likely it may have ended up on my kitchen counter, but if that were the case I probably wouldn't think it lost. So I should deprioritize looking on counters." or > "There's a good chance it's in my attic, but my attic is cluttered and I'd probably fail to find it even if I looked there, so I should deprioritize searching the attic until other possibilities have been exhausted."