Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!eos!riacs!danforth
From: danforth@riacs.edu (Douglas G. Danforth)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets
Subject: Re: step function
Message-ID: <1667@hydra.riacs.edu>
Date: 1 Sep 89 22:18:45 GMT
Reply-To: danforth@hydra.riacs.edu.UUCP (Douglas G. Danforth)
Organization: Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science
Lines: 49

Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets
Subject: Re: : Step Function
Summary: Bias and Basis
Keywords: learning,generalization

Tony Russo writes:
>
>No. You bring up a good point, because your argument is really, "What functions
>shall we consider in the hypothesis space?" 
>
>I can't tell you; this appears to be getting very deep. On the surface,
>it seems that biases are  !necessary! for learning anything at all.
>If so, then the biases are probably hard-wired and not learned, since
>they would have to be learned in terms of other biases, etc.
>
>Does this make sense to anyone else, or have I gone off the deep end?
>
> ~ tony ~
>
>	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>	~  	 Tony Russo		" Surrender to the void."	~
>	~   apr@cbnewsl.ATT.COM		   put disclaimer here		~
>	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Two comments:
 
     (1) If you will allow me to modify your words, it is interesting that
     bias can also be looked upon as a "basis".  By choosing a biased view of
     the world one does at least have a place to stand.  If an organism has
     a  collection of biased views then there is a possibility that the collection
     can "span" a space and act as a basis for representing any other biased
     view in that space.

     (2) In a deep way we are all limited by the sensory space in which we live.
     The representation of a function which spans a space larger than we
     are aware can only be approximated by functions within the smaller space.
     We are blind to that which we do not know.  We know we don't know some
     things.  However, there are things we don't know we don't know.  Very
     humbling (see Fernando Flores and Terry Winograd's book, Computers and
     Cognition (??), sorry forgot the exact title).




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Doug Danforth
danforth@riacs.edu
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