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Watching my 3-year-old, I suspect humans do behave this way, and without regards to pain or fatigue. He'll hit himself on the head with duplos or bang his head

Watching my 3-year-old, I suspect humans do behave this way, and without regards to pain or fatigue. He'll hit himself on the head with duplos or bang his head against the wall just to see what happens. The pain is just one more signal for reinforcement learning. I recall a paper in a non-CS journal (psych or neuroscience) that posited that the optimal way to gain large quantities of information about an uncertain environment is to simply perturb the environment in random ways and see what happens. Young children will often do lots of seemingly stupid or random things (see the r/KidsAreFuckingStupid subreddit) with the trust that if it's actually a life-ending decision their parent will stop them.

gryn 5y ago
was that paper about the complexities of the exploration/exploitation trade-off in different environments ?
- chrisweekly 5y ago
  Your phrasing it this way reminds me of the excellent book Algorithms to Live By. Highly recommended!
a9h74j 5y ago
> I suspect humans do behave this way Suddenly I recall one author of SICP saying that programming today is about poking at libraries.
_carbyau_ 5y ago
Have three year old and I would support your description for how kids grow in the early months and years. Now though learning from stories and observation is a thing too. Unsure exactly when that started. Of course, attention/awareness isn't great and playing with a balloon precludes caution around a fireplace... but it is understandable at this age.
CPLX 5y ago
This is certainly insightful. But I think a complete explanation would have to include the power of narrative as well. Somehow. It seems obvious and intuitive that the human brain is in some way wired to recognize patterns in data and weave narratives around those patterns, and also that it’s possible to skip the data part and convey intelligence through narrative and metaphor.

gryn 5y ago

was that paper about the complexities of the exploration/exploitation trade-off in different environments ?

chrisweekly 5y ago
Your phrasing it this way reminds me of the excellent book Algorithms to Live By. Highly recommended!

a9h74j 5y ago

> I suspect humans do behave this way Suddenly I recall one author of SICP saying that programming today is about poking at libraries.

_carbyau_ 5y ago

Have three year old and I would support your description for how kids grow in the early months and years. Now though learning from stories and observation is a thing too. Unsure exactly when that started. Of course, attention/awareness isn't great and playing with a balloon precludes caution around a fireplace... but it is understandable at this age.

CPLX 5y ago

This is certainly insightful. But I think a complete explanation would have to include the power of narrative as well. Somehow. It seems obvious and intuitive that the human brain is in some way wired to recognize patterns in data and weave narratives around those patterns, and also that it’s possible to skip the data part and convey intelligence through narrative and metaphor.