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Why is this shocking? Evolution itself is a learning system
by bsima 3y ago
Why is this shocking? Evolution itself is a learning system
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- aranchelk 3y agoEvolution is a process that blindly accumulates beneficial mutations, that seems somewhat different from learning. It’s easy to prove that just because a process is driven by a characteristic doesn’t necessarily mean the output of that process would also. Example: when I grocery shop while hungry, that hunger may cause me to make irrational decisions, but the collection of items I buy aren’t themselves hungry.
- argiopetech 3y agoLearning is the mostly blind accumulation of knowledge that will hopefully be beneficial (and not detrimental to the excess of that benefit, which is not a given) in the future. Targeted study is the exception, even for humans. This is also a somewhat better description of evolution than yours because benefit in excess of detriment is not a guarantee and the process is not blind (because animals breed selectively).
- bsima 3y agoYes and what’s more is that natural selection is a loss minimization function, similar to gradient descent
- pizzafeelsright 3y agoEvolution is alive? Learning? What exactly is evolution anymore?
- uoaei 3y agoI am honestly surprised to see this downvoted on HN. Everything is a learning system in the thermodynamic sense. Hint: ML is just thermodynamics re-implemented in software.