R
Rich The Philosophizer
Guest
OK, it's not about "real" electronics, but I figure, by now, everybody
must realize that if it's Rich posting, be ready for some glop. Caveat
Emptor, and all that. ;-)
Anyway, I was musing about the acupuncture thread we had not too long
ago, and how modern medical science is very skeptical, and somebody said
something about seeing a set of patterns, and using different words to
express these patterns, that don't fit in the other's ordinary set of
references.
And I came up with an "example" of sorts, which might or might not relate,
but I think it does, so I've saved the musing as the first chunk of filler
for My Book. ;-)
(it's only about pattern recognition - mapping that onto acupuncture/
western medicine will be another chunk of filler.)
-------------
But I want to jump to pattern recognition.
Consider a game of solitaire. There are lots of different
varieties of solitare, but all of them include a deck of
cards (or more than one deck), and some playing algorithm.
Every variety has a very finite set of rules, and there
are books with lists of these rules.
OK, I'll call that a "given." And, given a suitable deck
of cards and the rule book, somebody who's never even
heard of solitaire would be able to eventually, move
the cards around as suggested by the algorithm from the
rule book, and "play" a competent game of solitare, albeit
slowly. I've even written a program that could play a
trivial game of solitaire, of the "Canfield" variety.
I was very proud.
But, I'm sure we've all heard this one: If you go
into the woods alone, be sure to bring along a deck
of cards. That way, if you get lost, don't worry -
just sit down and start to play solitaire, and before
you have time to light up a smoke, somebody will come
along to help you.
Now, my point is this. There's a guy sitting there
playing solitaire. You walk up from one side, and
the alien with only the rule book gerflups up from
the other, and you (but not the alien - he has to
consult the book) immediately spot the move that
the guy's missing.
Who wants to write the neural net program for
_that_ little bit of pattern recognition?
-------------
Any takers? ;-)
;^j
Rich
must realize that if it's Rich posting, be ready for some glop. Caveat
Emptor, and all that. ;-)
Anyway, I was musing about the acupuncture thread we had not too long
ago, and how modern medical science is very skeptical, and somebody said
something about seeing a set of patterns, and using different words to
express these patterns, that don't fit in the other's ordinary set of
references.
And I came up with an "example" of sorts, which might or might not relate,
but I think it does, so I've saved the musing as the first chunk of filler
for My Book. ;-)
(it's only about pattern recognition - mapping that onto acupuncture/
western medicine will be another chunk of filler.)
-------------
But I want to jump to pattern recognition.
Consider a game of solitaire. There are lots of different
varieties of solitare, but all of them include a deck of
cards (or more than one deck), and some playing algorithm.
Every variety has a very finite set of rules, and there
are books with lists of these rules.
OK, I'll call that a "given." And, given a suitable deck
of cards and the rule book, somebody who's never even
heard of solitaire would be able to eventually, move
the cards around as suggested by the algorithm from the
rule book, and "play" a competent game of solitare, albeit
slowly. I've even written a program that could play a
trivial game of solitaire, of the "Canfield" variety.
I was very proud.
But, I'm sure we've all heard this one: If you go
into the woods alone, be sure to bring along a deck
of cards. That way, if you get lost, don't worry -
just sit down and start to play solitaire, and before
you have time to light up a smoke, somebody will come
along to help you.
Now, my point is this. There's a guy sitting there
playing solitaire. You walk up from one side, and
the alien with only the rule book gerflups up from
the other, and you (but not the alien - he has to
consult the book) immediately spot the move that
the guy's missing.
Who wants to write the neural net program for
_that_ little bit of pattern recognition?
-------------
Any takers? ;-)
;^j
Rich