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In the news:
Google just open-sourced TensorFlow, its AI engine.
In response to
Open thread, Nov. 09 - Nov. 15, 2015
*linear algebra computational graph engine with automatic gradient calculation
I really wonder how this will fit into the established deep learning software ecosystem - it has clear advantages over any single one of the large players (Theano, Torch, Caffee), but lacks the established community of any of them. As a researcher in the field, it's really frustrating that there is no standardisation and you essentially have to know a ton of software frameworks to effectively keep up with research, and I highly doubt Google entering the fray will change this.
In response to
Open thread, Oct. 26 - Nov. 01, 2015
The Tech Elite’s Quest to Reinvent School in Its Own Image
A Day in the Life
Like a true startup, Khan Lab School constantly changes its schedule to accommodate evolving workflow and logistical demands. Different age-groups follow different self-paced lesson plans, but here’s an example of a day at the Lab School.
9–9:15 am: Morning Meeting
A daily all-school meeting where students learn about things like current events, view the work of their fellow classmates, and focus on relationships.
9:15–9:45 Advisory
Students break out into cohorts sorted by age. They attend one-on-one meetings with advisers to set personal goals. (One ambitious 12-year-old hopes to launch a small-scale NGO.) Some days include “Goal Studio” time to work on these independent passion projects.
9:45–10:45 Literacy Lab, Part 1
Teachers cover all the essentials, from developing main ideas to composing blog posts.
10:45–11 Morning Break
11–11:30 Literacy Lab, Part 2
Instructors use digital tools like Lexia and LightSail to assess students’ reading levels and work with individuals on problem areas.
11:30–12 Inner Wellness
Students improve their mental well-being by practicing mindfulness.
12–12:45 pm Lunch
12:45–1 Afternoon Meeting
Another schoolwide gathering for announcements and updates.
1–2:30 Math/Computer Science Lab
Using videos from Khan Academy, students practice skills at their math level. Younger students receive more direct instruction, while older students might work on a collaborative engineering project.
2:30–3 Outer Wellness
Students participate in physical fitness activities, including gardening and playing sports like field hockey, soccer, and Ultimate Frisbee.
3–4 Cleanup, Read Aloud, Flexible Pick Up/Recess
4–6 Studio Time/Pick Up
During this optional period, students work on their own without direct supervision, though the staff is available for help.
I need some calibration here. Is this satire?
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[Link]: KIC 8462852, aka WTF star, "the most mysterious star in our galaxy", ETI candidate, etc.
If it is alien structure, what purpose it have most probably? In your opinion?
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[Link]: KIC 8462852, aka WTF star, "the most mysterious star in our galaxy", ETI candidate, etc.
Two things come to mind, providing energy or highly directional interstellar communication.
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[Link]: KIC 8462852, aka WTF star, "the most mysterious star in our galaxy", ETI candidate, etc.
That's less likely than that it's something aliens constructed to make their lives better.
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[Link]: KIC 8462852, aka WTF star, "the most mysterious star in our galaxy", ETI candidate, etc.
Frankly, both of those suggestions sound about equally ridiculous to me. But then again, it may just be scope insensitivity because of how minute both likelihoods are to begin with.
Imagining the orientations as a series of rotations along individual, orthonormal basis axes, you may run into the problem of gimbal lock. Try visualising the desired final result as an orientation represented by a quaternion.
If we are in a simulation, why isn’t the simulation more streamlined? I have a couple of examples for that:
- Classical physics and basic chemistry would likely be sufficient for life to exist.
- There are seven uninhabitable planets in our solar system.
- 99.9…% of everything performs extremely boring computations (dirt, large bodies of fluids and gas etc.).
- The universe is extremely hostile towards intelligent life (GRBs, supernovae, scarcity of resources, large distances between celestial body).
It seems that our simulation hosts would need to have access to vast or unlimited resources. (In that case it would be interesting to consider whether life is sustainable in a world with unlimited resources at all. Perhaps scarcity is somehow required for ethical behavior to develop; malice would perhaps spread too easily.)
I’m a big fan of these infographics by the way.
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Simulations Map: what is the most probable type of the simulation in which we live?
How do you know it isn't? Everything off the Earth could be a very simple simulation just designed to emit the right kind of EM radiation to look as if it's there. Likewise, large chunks of dead matter could easily be optimized away until a human interacts with them in sufficient detail. Other than your observation about classical physics, all your points are observations "from the inside" that could be optimized around without degrading our perception of the universe.
In response to
Open thread, Oct. 5 - Oct. 11, 2015
I've found I've become a smidge more conservative-- I was in favor of the Arab Spring, and to put it mildly, it hasn't worked well. I'm not even sure the collapse of the Soviet Union was a net gain.
Any thoughts about how much stability should be respected?
I definitely value it higher than the momentary high of getting to impose your values on others, which seems to be the opposite of the current US foreign policy.
In response to
Open thread, Oct. 5 - Oct. 11, 2015
I have banned advancedatheist. While he's been tiresome, I find that I have more tolerance for nastiness than some, but this recent comment was the last straw. I've found that I can tolerate bigotry a lot better than I can tolerate bigoted policy proposals, and that comment was altogether too close to suggesting that women should be distributed to men they don't want sex with.
I disapprove.
Do you believe that those posts that receive massive downvotes are healthy for LW? Otherwise why do you continue posting them?
Speaking for myself, I find most of his contributions relevant and interesting.
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ML is search. If you have more parameters, you can do more, but the search problem is harder. Deep NN is a way to parallelize the search problem with # of grad students (by tweaks, etc.), also a general template to guide local-search-via-gradient (e.g. make it look for "interesting" features in the data).
I don't mean to be disparaging, btw. I think it is an important innovation to use human AND computer time intelligently to solve bigger problems.
In some sense it is voodoo (not very interpretable) but so what? Lots of other solutions to problems are, too. Do you really understand how your computer hardware or your OS work? So what if you don't?
There is research in that direction, particularly in the field of visual object recognising convolutional networks. It is possible to interpret what a neural net is looking for.
http://yosinski.com/deepvis