Re: Is generalisation a limit to intelligence?

From: Joaquim Almgren Gāndara (claw@lords.com)
Date: Sun Dec 03 2000 - 11:16:03 MST


> Ultimately one wants a model with as many free parameters as there are
> "implicit in the data." But this is not always known, or even well-defined!

And if you have too many free parameters, you get overfitting.

> So in this case, which is a real-life example, sophisticated generalization
> methods provide more OPPORTUNITY for overfitting, but also provide
> the opportunity to avoid overfitting by doing the sophisticated analysis
> "right"

OK, but that sounds like a bit of a hybrid to me. You're talking about
generalisation *and* analysis. I was referring to generalisation purely as a way
of classifying roughly, with some acceptable error, e.g. "apples are edible". In
addition, I'm assuming that the generalisation is at a subconscious level, or a
mechanism that the mind employs more or less implicitly. Your generalisation
methods sound more conscious and explicit.

- Joaquim Gāndara
. claw@lords.com
. http://www.ite.mh.se/~joaal98
. http://games.scandit.com
. http://www.mp3.com/sdtank



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