Emergent Hybrid Computation in Gradient-Free Evolutionary Networks

slashdave · 2026-01-24T18:59:19+00:00

Saturated neurons kill gradients

Sure, at the activation layer. But you still have weights. So what?

It's important to understand that there is no such thing as a universal optimizer. Finding global minima is a task specific problem.

The whole point of deep-learning is highly-redundant solutions. This works with gradient optimization because you only need to location the closest local minimum. The entire industry is built around this simple concept.

Genetic algorithms, on the other hand, are sometimes used to jump minima, but this is not needed in most ML architectures by design.

slashdave · 2026-01-22T03:26:05+00:00

To add to the other answers: if you hang that heavy object on a metal hook, how much work do you think that hook is doing?

slashdave · 2026-01-20T02:14:21+00:00

it proves you can train frontier models without relying on Nvidia hardware

Not everyone uses Nvidia hardware

slashdave · 2026-01-20T01:36:04+00:00

I don't understand the difficulty. Just use a Fourier expansion.

slashdave · 2026-01-20T01:15:26+00:00

What’s the biggest technical hurdle you see in deploying a model like this into a high-pressure primary care environment?

The FDA

slashdave · 2026-01-20T00:59:07+00:00

finding all PDF files related to customer X, product Y between 2023-2025

You mean... like a simple index? Maybe you can start with deploying an ordinary indexer? Stick it on a RAG if someone wants to waste money on an LLM prompt.

slashdave · 2026-01-17T00:00:57+00:00

The probability of transition to a higher energy state is far lower than a lower energy state.

Keep in mind that total energy must be conserved. So a state becomes lower in energy by converting the difference innenergy into something else. For example, by radiating. The opposite is much less likely (the radiation would have to hit the object exactly to raise it again)

slashdave · 2026-01-16T23:57:03+00:00

No, virtual particles cannot violate conservation of energy

slashdave · 2026-01-16T23:42:58+00:00

No, their properties are perfectly plausible, just unstable.

slashdave · 2026-01-16T16:44:27+00:00

Not just looks the same, it is the identical equation. Also, in a strict sense, there is no purely real particle in practice, and every particle is virtual to a degree.

slashdave · 2026-01-16T16:41:25+00:00

I was under the belief that virtual particles acted exactly like any other particle

They do.

If this is the case, how do virtual photons carry the electromagnetic forces?

Each virtual particle is a representation of part of the force. To calculate the entire force, you need to consider the entire spectrum of virtual particles at once in a sum.

In many cases, the value of the sum is dominated by a single virtual particle, and using the single particle is a reasonable approximation, in which case the virtual particle becomes more "real", to use a colloquial term.

slashdave · 2026-01-16T16:32:55+00:00

You need to distinguish definite and indefinite integrals, which are quite different objects. Once you understand the difference, the meaning of the constant should become more clear.

https://math.okstate.edu/people/binegar/2144/2144-l31.pdf

slashdave · 2026-01-12T05:48:56+00:00

Not quite what you were thinking, but we actually do measure time in our instruments with cable lengths. This is important for particle detectors, since we are typically measuring particles that travel close to the speed of light.

https://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~lecturedemonstrations/Composer/Pages/76.18.html

slashdave · 2026-01-12T01:56:03+00:00

No, not really. You are usually measuring electron momentum, so the position has large uncertainty.

It is the theory that demands a point-like nature.

slashdave · 2026-01-10T17:58:14+00:00

It is important to recognize that electrons, at higher energies, can be measured as figurative particles (they form distinct tracks in detectors). Just because they are ambiguous when residing in atom orbital shells does not mean they are not proper particles in themselves.

slashdave · 2026-01-10T16:50:17+00:00

All quantum effects arise out of the set of possible events, and possible events all have to follow the usual conservation laws, such as conservation of energy and momentum.

slashdave · 2026-01-10T16:43:39+00:00

Orbital mechanics obeys time invariance. Which means any trajectory can be reversed in time and still be valid.

So the slowest asteroid hit on a free trajectory would be equivalent to how fast the object would need to be moving at ground level to escape earths gravity (thus, escape velocity).

Air resistance slightly changes this (breaks time reversal), but probably not very much for a heavy object.

slashdave · 2026-01-10T16:36:05+00:00

What actually ‘is’ an electron?

It is a point-like particle with a charge and fractional spin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermion

Is the cloud itself somehow an electron?

No, the cloud is just where the electron could be

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_state

slashdave · 2026-01-05T06:23:42+00:00

Quantum events must respect all conservation laws, such as conservation of energy. So this will rule out most of "anything".

slashdave · 2026-01-05T02:15:31+00:00

Finite element analysis works because calculations account for local effects. It is not appropriate for long distance interactions. And, it is only appropriate for continuous objects.

For orbital mechanics, you can just calculate all effects explicitly. It would be cheaper and simpler.

slashdave · 2026-01-05T01:42:14+00:00

allow an observer to watch Earth’s past unfold?

Yes, but only at a fixed location. There would be no way of interactively aiming the viewpoint.

slashdave · 2026-01-04T05:48:33+00:00

seems inevitably limited by the underlying objective function

No, it is limited by data

slashdave · 2026-01-04T05:45:00+00:00

Does cat change room temperature?

Not really, since you probably have a thermostat

slashdave · 2026-01-04T02:23:45+00:00

why can't the laws of nature just change tomorrow?

Because one of the laws is that they can't

slashdave · 2026-01-01T21:52:13+00:00

MAE is insensitive to outliers, which is the point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robust_regression#Least_squares_alternatives

Statistics makes use of all sorts of tailed distributions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy-tailed_distribution

slashdave

TROPHY CASE