4 ms·
Brings to mind this classic from the Jargon File: http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html In the days
by _iyig 6y ago
Brings to mind this classic from the Jargon File:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html
In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. “What are you doing?”, asked Minsky.
“I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe” Sussman replied.
“Why is the net wired randomly?”, asked Minsky.
“I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play”, Sussman said. Minsky then shut his eyes. “Why do you close your eyes?”, Sussman asked his teacher.
“So that the room will be empty.”
At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.
- nefasti 6y agoI don’t get it :(
- epaga 6y agoI think it means - just as closing your eyes doesn't mean the room becomes empty, wiring the learning network randomly doesn't mean you'll end up with no pre-conceptions (e.g. the rule system at least will need to be programmed in).
- blamestross 6y agoIt also doesn't avoid preconceptions directly. It just initializes random ones.
- shim2k 6y agoAren’t preconceptions not random by definition?
- kian 6y agoI think he's suggesting that any given random set of preconceptions will itself be a 'sample' from the entire preconception-space, and therefor itself a preconception - just one that you didn't involve yourself in choosing.
- blamestross 6y agoIf your preconceptions were not random relative to the truth, wouldn't you be able to know how to correct them?