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Does this have some significance for back propagation or something, or is it just an interesting trick of arithmetic? //not that it needs to have a technical us
by noduerme 11mo ago
Does this have some significance for back propagation or something, or is it just an interesting trick of arithmetic? //not that it needs to have a technical use, it's still neat.
- huhtenberg 11mo agoHailstone numbers has been a popular subject in computing circles since forever. Not much practical application, just a very simple, but curious construct.
- robot-wrangler 11mo agoCollatz, busy-beavers, and algorithmic information theory are all related. To the extent they offer insight into the sparseness or density of irreducible complexity in the space of all computation.. this has many implications for what can be computed efficiently, what can be learned efficiently, program-synthesis, what can be analyzed "at a distance" without just trying it and potentially needing to wait forever, etc. Whether it will say anything very significant practically or only philosophically is a different question. Maybe it is something like the discovery of transcendentals.. finding out that most of the number line won't have a tidy algebraic closed-form isn't exactly a make-or-break deal for the program of mathematics itself, and it also doesn't matter much to people who are doing engineering
- ur-whale 11mo ago> Does this have some significance for back propagation or something You're right! What could darn possibly matter these days, in the whole entirety of the realm Mathematics, if it does now somehow have a measurable impact on backprop ?
- WhyOhWhyQ 11mo agoThis guy's kid hits a homerun in the little league game and he bemoans that the kid is wasting his talents not working on backprop.
- noduerme 11mo agoSigh. You're making the wrong assumption about why I asked the question.
- Dylan16807 11mo agoAsking because you think everyone else is so focused on AI that "high level of interest" implies AI is just as bad, probably worse.
- noduerme 11mo agoI'm not saying otherwise. I'm a bit tired of the subject dominating the front page (and every industry conversation, and the news). Ten years ago, I would have asked with some suspicion "does this relate to blockchain?" Sign of the times. Just as bad as what, personally only being interested in something if it relates to the hot topic of the day? I asked a genuine question, without leaping to any conclusions about the OP. Seems everyone leapt to the conclusion about me which I refrained from.
- Dylan16807 11mo agoWell I'm not leaping to conclusions, I'm going on the reason you said you asked. > Just as bad as what, personally only being interested in something if it relates to the hot topic of the day? On topics that don't inherently suggest any AI application, asking about AI applications from an AI-cynical perspective is even worse than asking from an AI-hype perspective. They both suck even if they're genuine, and the cynicism pushes it a little bit further.
- noduerme 11mo agoThe cynicism is just asking what the underlying motive is [for the interest in this algorithm]. Whatever metric you're using for judging an honest question as "better" or "worse", you didn't answer the question (someone else did), you misinterpreted it, and you still feel the need to judge its validity. Whatever reasons you have for doing so and then trying to turn it into a morality play or a spectacle, as in, how dare you ask if this relates to back propagation? Oh it's even worse than I thought! - all of that calls your motivation into doubt and brings up a whole galaxy of questions as to why you'd find it necessary to attack someone for asking a plain technical question. None of which I care about kmowing the answers to. At school they say: There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. Consider what negative value you have brought to this conversation, without providing any insight whatsoever.
- phyzome 11mo agoCrazy how AI has infected every conversation these days.
- noduerme 11mo agoI was just asking because I wondered if the high level of interest here was due to a connection with AI, not because I'm an AI evangelist. I tend to agree with you.