Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagNo Free Lunch theorems

Glücksspiel
Type
post
Author
News
Date
November 16, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Science
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Can Wholly Random Processes Produce Information?

Can information result, without intention, from a series of accidents? Some have tried it with computers…
News
November 16, 2021
13
Artificial Intelligence, Science

In Define information before you talk about it, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed engineering prof Robert J. Marks on the way information, not matter, shapes our world (October 28, 2021). In the first portion, Egnor and Marks discussed questions like: Why do two identical snowflakes seem more meaningful than one snowflake. Then they turned to the relationship between information and creativity. Is creativity a function of more information? Or is there more to it? And human intervention make any difference? Does Mount Rushmore have no more information than Mount Fuji? Does human intervention make a measurable difference? That’s specified complexity. Putting the idea of specified complexity to work, how do we measure meaningful information? How do we know Lincoln contained more Read More ›

water waves
Beautiful water waves - Splashed water wave in clean blue water, clean filtered water ready for drinking
Type
post
Author
News
Date
November 14, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Surveillance
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Why AI Can’t Really Filter Out “Hate News”

As Robert J. Marks explains, the No Free Lunch theorem establishes that computer programs without bias are like ice cubes without cold
News
November 14, 2021
12
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Surveillance

In Define information before you talk about it, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed engineering prof Robert J. Marks on the way information, not matter, shapes our world (October 28, 2021). In the first portion, Egnor and Marks discussed questions like: Why do two identical snowflakes seem more meaningful than one snowflake. Then they turned to the relationship between information and creativity. Is creativity a function of more information? Or is there more to it? And human intervention make any difference? Does Mount Rushmore have no more information than Mount Fuji? Does human intervention make a measurable difference? That’s specified complexity. Putting the idea of specified complexity to work, how do we measure meaningful information? How do we know Lincoln contained more Read More ›

close-up-image-of-coder-typing-on-computer-stockpack-adobe-stock
Close-up image of coder typing on computer
Type
post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
October 18, 2021
Categorized
Programming
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The Search for the Universal Algorithm Continues

Why does machine learning always seem to be rounding a corner, only to eventually hit a wall?
Jonathan Bartlett
October 18, 2021
3
Programming

DeepMind, a part of Alphabet (i.e., Google), has made many headlines in the past. The biggest was its development of AlphaGo, which used reinforcement learning to beat the number one Go player at the time (2017). DeepMind generalized this into AlphaZero, which is supposedly able to solve any two-player game of perfect information. DeepMind has come back into headlines recently with the attempt to build an AI which can generate any algorithm. While they are starting with map data, the goal is to generalize this and generate any desired algorithm. The search for such a “universal algorithm” has been essentially equivalent to the search for a perpetual motion machine in physics. The allure of both is obvious. In physics, if you Read More ›

space-and-galaxy-light-speed-travel-elements-of-this-image-furnished-by-nasa-stockpack-adobe-stock
Space and Galaxy light speed travel. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.
Type
post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
June 29, 2021
Categorized
Mathematics, Science
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No Free Lunches: Bernoulli is Right, Keynes is Wrong

What the Big Bang teaches us about nothing
Robert J. Marks
June 29, 2021
5
Mathematics, Science

Jacob Bernoulli made a now obvious observation about probability over three-and-a-half centuries ago: If nothing is known about the outcome of a random event, all outcomes can be assumed to be equally probable. Bernoulli’s Principle of Insufficient Reason (PrOIR) is commonly used. Throw a fair die. There are six outcomes, one for each face of the cube. The chance of getting five pips showing on the roll of a die is therefore one sixth. If a million lottery tickets are sold and you buy one ticket, the chances of winning are one in a million. This reasoning is intuitively obvious.  The assumption about the die is wrong if the die is loaded. But you don’t know that. You know nothing. So Bernoulli’s PrIOR Read More ›

brown-bag-school-lunch-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Brown Bag School Lunch
Type
post
Author
News
Date
January 29, 2021
Categorized
Information Theory
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Does Information Just Happen? Or Does the Universe Have Meaning?

The computer revolution did not show that information could be produced from nothing
News
January 29, 2021
6
Information Theory

Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, a frequent contributor to Mind Matters News, interviewed our Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks, a computer engineer, on the nature of information. Information makes a huge difference to what happens among human beings. But it is not like matter or energy. It doesn’t weigh anything or generate heat. How can we understand it scientifically? https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-118-Robert-Marks.mp3 A partial transcript follows. This portion begins at 01:10. Show notes and links follow. Robert J. Marks: Well, my background is not in biology, but it is in computer science and computer engineering. And one of the things we do is do artificial intelligence. And I think maybe your question translated to artificial intelligence is, can anything happen in artificial Read More ›

abstract-binary-code-science-computing-center-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
abstract binary code science computing center
Type
post
Author
News
Date
September 22, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Can AI Really Evolve into Superintelligence All by Itself?

We can’t just turn a big computer over to evolution and go away and hope for great things
News
September 22, 2020
6
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

At Science earlier this year it was claimed that Darwinian evolution alone can make computers much smarter. As a result, researchers hoped to “discover something really fundamental that will take a long time for humans to figure out”: Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving—literally. Researchers have created software that borrows concepts from Darwinian evolution, including “survival of the fittest,” to build AI programs that improve generation after generation without human input. The program replicated decades of AI research in a matter of days, and its designers think that one day, it could discover new approaches to AI. Edd Gent, “Artificial intelligence is evolving all by itself” at Science (April 30, 2020) How does that work? The program discovers algorithms using a Read More ›