Tim_Tyler comments on Measuring Optimization Power - Less Wrong

14 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 27 October 2008 09:44PM

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Comment author: Tim_Tyler 28 October 2008 07:14:53AM 2 points [-]

This concept of "optimisation power" was previously mentioned here. To recap on some of the objections raised at that time:

Optimisation power suggests something useful - but the proposed metric contains no reference to the number of trials, the number of trials in series on the critical path - or most of the other common ways of measuring the worth of optimisation processes. It seems to be more a function of the size of the problem space than anything else - in which case, why "power" and not, say "factor".

Before christening the notion, there are some basic questions: Is the proposed metric any use? What is the point of it?