10 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
AI Can't Tell You Why It Did Something
The problem comes when the database and the engine go from )ach to oracle. It happens quite often that I will ask one of the students about a move from one of their games, and why he made it. If the move comes early on, the answer is almost always, "Because that's the nain line." That is, that's the theoretical move in the database, likely 5layed by many Grandmasters before. Sometimes the move isn't thery, but the student prepared it with the help of an engine, so the anwer is similar: "It's ...Folksonomies: artificial intelligence
Folksonomies: artificial intelligence
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notes
notes04 NOV 2018 by ideonexus
Degenerate Strategies and Cheating
Why isn't using a degenerate strategy considered cheating? Degenerate strategies take advantage of weaknesses in the rules of a game, but do not actually violate the rules. What kind of player would play in this way? The answer is both a dedicated player, who is overzealously seeking the perfect strategy, and an unsportsmanlike player, who has found a hole in the rules to exploit, even though he understands that he is not playing the game the way it was intended. These two kinds of players ca... 1 notes
notesIs the same true of memorizing algorithms to solve the rubiks cube?
07 AUG 2017 by ideonexus
Teacher Approval Ends Discussion
After years of classroom research, Dillon (1988) concluded that teacher interventions during student discussions tend to shut down student thinking and student talk. He found this to be particularly true of positive feedback or praise. The rationale, of course, is that when a teacher communicates agreement with one student’s thinking, both the speaker and other classmates conclude that there is no need for further thought because the teacher has gotten the answer he or she was after. Folksonomies: education discussion
Folksonomies: education discussion
1 notes
notes23 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Why Do We Like Certain Tunes or Understand Certain Senten...
Contrast two answers to the question, Why do we like certain tunes?
Because they have certain structural features.Because they resemble other tunes we like.
The first answer has to do with the laws and rules that make tunes pleasant. In language, we know some laws for sentences; that is, we know the forms sentences must have to be syntactically acceptable, if not the things they must have to make them sensible or even pleasant to the ear. As to melody, it seems that we only know som... 1 notes
notes18 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Altruism is a Basic Human Instinct
The cost for my survival must have been hundreds of millions of dollars. All to save one dorky botanist. Why bother?
Well, okay. I know the answer to that. Part of it might be what I represent: progress, science, and the interplanetary future we’ve dreamed of for centuries. But really, they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It might not seem that way sometimes, but it’s true.
If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a sear...Folksonomies: altruism
Folksonomies: altruism
1 notes
notes30 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
The Problem with the X-Files
The cult of The X-Files has been defended as harmless because it is, after
all, only fiction. On the face of it, that is a fair defence. But regularly recurring fiction - soap operas, cop series find the like - are legitimately
criticized if, week after week, they systematically present a one-sided
view of the world. The X-Files is a television series in which, every week,
two FBI agents face a mystery. One of the two, Scully, favours a rational,
scientific explanation; the other agent, Mulde...Folksonomies: science fiction criticism
Folksonomies: science fiction criticism
1 notes
notes31 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Einstein on Prayer
January 24, 1936
Dear Phyllis,
I will attempt to reply to your question as simply as I can. Here is my answer:
Scientists believe that every occurrence, including the affairs of human beings, is due to the laws of nature. Therefore a scientist cannot be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, by a supernaturally manifested wish.
However, we must concede that our actual knowledge of these forces is imperfect, so that in the end the belief in the e...Find source.
19 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Lojban for Experimental Linquistics
Lojban is a predicate language, with no distinct nouns, verbs, or
adjectives. What are the linguistic (communicative) properties of such a system? The answer has been partially explored through symbolic logic. But do people, when thinking linguistically, mimic in any way the processes of formal logic? What effects would a formal-logic– based language have on those linguistic thinking processes? Is the resulting language susceptible to the same analysis as natural language, in terms of the v...Folksonomies: language artificial
Folksonomies: language artificial
1 notes
notesNatural languages lack the controls necessary for experimentation, but an artificial language works for testing Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.
01 JUN 2013 by mxplx
problem is not technology but your lack of will to adapt
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970416/quotesFolksonomies: immortality prescience
Folksonomies: immortality prescience
Prof.Barnhardt: There must be alternatives. You must have some technology that could solve our problem.
Klaatu: Your problem is not technology. The problem is you. You lack the will to change.
Prof. Barnhardt: Then help us change.
Klaatu: I cannot change your nature. You treat the world as you treat each other.
Prof.Barnhardt: But every civilization reaches a crisis point eventually.
Klaatu: Most of them don't make it.
Prof. Barnhardt: Yours did. How?
Klaatu: Our sun was dying. We had to evolve in order to survive.
Prof.Barnhardt: So it was only when your world was threated with destruction that you became what you are now.
Klaatu: Yes.
Prof.Barnhardt: Well that's where we are. You say we're on the brink of destruction and you're right. But it's only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment. Don't take it from us, we are close to an answer.
13 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Public Policy Shouldn't Bet on Science
You ask whether, given a choice, I would put more resources into space or AI. My answer is that either choice would be stupid. Politicians always want to make such choices too soon, because they imagine they can pick winners. Usually they pick losers. The only way to improve the chances for finding winners is to keep all the choices open and try them all. That is particularly true for space and AI, which are not really competing with each other. They are done by different kinds of people in d...
1 It will always bet wrong. All science should be open, free, and supported.
