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Despite the name, there's nothing mystical about neural networks that make them not 'statistical based methods' It's just a particular way of describing a mixt
by aheilbut 13y ago
Despite the name, there's nothing mystical about neural networks that make them not 'statistical based methods'
It's just a particular way of describing a mixture of nonlinear regression models. There are some nice, although very abstract analogies to biology, which is both a blessing and a curse.
- joe_the_user 13y agoYes, "...there's nothing mystical about neural networks", yes, there's nothing "not statistical" in the reality of the construct (the NN classes are often given without reference to stat). But in the way that people present them or think about them, there is tendency for them to be seen or used as indeed "black boxes"(per the gp) or mystical constructs. A NN might indeed be a good fit for a given class of problems and its the mechanism might be revealing for said problems. But the external impression that their development gives, that their development is that of a "thinking process", is kind of a weakness for the field.