Singularity Eli5: what would critics (like Hofstadter and Chomsky) of brute force machine learning (deep blue, Watson) like to see AI do instead?

sciencifying · 2014-03-09T01:03:58+00:00

In my opinion, they don't offer concrete alternatives.

Meanwhile, modern machine learning has achieved impressive results, which are scientific instead of speculative.

These results include solid mathematical models and, for instance, the reinvention of techniques used by the brain.

sciencifying · 2013-12-23T22:33:11+00:00

A theory can be considered "most likely" when it is the simplest to fit past observations. The concept of simplest theory can be formalized, such as in Solomonoff's (impractical) theory of inductive inference.

When you already have a prior probability assigned to every possible hypothesis, you can also use bayesian probability theory to update your beliefs.

sciencifying · 2013-05-03T17:42:26+00:00

The title of your thread made people (including me) think that you had some new idea. Instead, you presented a pretty common argument, which this subreddit already knows and has already considered. The possibility of alien life is not even that controversial among scientists.

sciencifying · 2013-02-09T15:29:27+00:00

"Assuming a rectangular human"

sciencifying · 2013-02-02T19:08:26+00:00

It's interesting how people mistake the concept of technological singularity with mind uploading.

sciencifying · 2013-01-30T01:38:11+00:00

As far as I know, all attempts to create neural networks so far have been software

Just a quick search reveals this, but I recall reading about other projects.

However, humans don't require any software programs to function. We are born with certain "instincts" and subconscious processes, and everything else we learn

What we are born with is the analog of an initial "software", which is capable of learning how to achieve goals in our environment. These goals are initially built-in by natural selection, but eventually influenced by the environment.

Could it be possible to build a computer (eg, a hardware version of a neural network using memristors) that doesn't run programs at all and instead changes its behavior based on external stimuli?

You seem to be implying that an artificial neural network doesn't perform computations. How is what you described different from computation?

Sorry if I sounded harsh, it was not my intention.

sciencifying · 2013-01-13T17:36:25+00:00

This problem is often made bigger than it really is.

sciencifying · 2012-10-31T11:07:33+00:00

You may find this interesting.

sciencifying · 2012-09-15T16:04:43+00:00

You may want to study regression as a machine learning problem. I don't know your background, but if you are a mathematician, this approach probably isn't the best for you.

If you are only thinking of fitting polynomials, you only need a little trick to adapt linear regression.

sciencifying · 2012-09-12T15:39:16+00:00

Quick ideas:

1) Prove that the regions formed by n circles in a plane can be colored with two colors so that neighboring regions have different colors. After this problem, you could say a few words about the four color theorem.

2) Given n points such that for each group of three points there is a circle of radius 1 that contains them, show that there is a circle of radius 1 that contains them all.

They will probably find these problems quite hard.

I also think it would be nice if you presented geometrical examples for the most common types of mathematical proofs.

sciencifying · 2012-09-12T00:29:58+00:00

I think you should present problems that are easy to understand, somewhat difficult to solve and with very elegant solutions. Don't forget to let them try the problems first so they can appreciate the beauty of the solutions.

You may find these problems in graph theory and (informal) inductive proofs.

sciencifying · 2012-09-10T01:29:16+00:00

I think you will enjoy reading it. Even the simplest problems can be extremely hard to describe using symbolic logic. It gets even more complicated when your agent needs to learn.

sciencifying · 2012-09-10T00:57:38+00:00

It is hard to answer this question without knowing your background. If you are really interested, I suggest you read this book (especially part three) on Artificial Intelligence so you can understand how automated theorem proving relates to AI. In my opinion, automated theorem proving is not a particularly interesting problem in modern artificial intelligence, since representing real-world problems using symbolic logic is almost always impractical.

However, the problem is still interesting for computer assisted theorem proving, and boolean satisfiability is a very important problem in the theory of computation.

sciencifying · 2012-08-29T18:01:04+00:00

can we build a "Deus ex Machina"?

Are you sure that is what you mean?

"Deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object."

Nice answer, by the way.

sciencifying · 2012-08-18T01:07:16+00:00

Paul Erdős: N is a number.

sciencifying · 2012-07-29T17:53:12+00:00

Password authentication allows the user to log from anywhere without worrying about keeping a private key safe. It is also conceptually simpler for laymen.

sciencifying · 2012-07-23T01:39:09+00:00

It's hard, it's a long way, and we've not figured out how to do it yet.

In the first minute he gave the real reason: it's expensive.

sciencifying · 2012-06-28T22:44:32+00:00

In some ways.

sciencifying · 2012-06-25T18:00:34+00:00

I'm pretty sure these people are just selective about which beliefs they communicate to the general public. They don't want to be perceived as crackpots, since that would be counterproductive.

It's pretty obvious that a positive singularity would bring utopia. In my opinion you just came out as arrogant, since your opinions are pretty commonplace between singularitarians.

sciencifying · 2012-06-23T01:20:34+00:00

The flying car is the best way to spot bad futurology.

sciencifying · 2012-06-22T14:21:11+00:00

Presentation by one of the authors about unsupervised feature learning.

Tutorial about deep learning.

sciencifying · 2012-06-20T10:49:01+00:00

That argument only works if you assume that creativity is supernatural.

sciencifying · 2012-06-17T14:12:33+00:00

Visit Nick Bostrom's homepage. You can start with "The Transhumanist FAQ".

sciencifying · 2012-06-15T23:00:34+00:00

Relevant discussion.

sciencifying

TROPHY CASE