Tag Archives: probability
24 Jul Pattern Classification in Space
Pattern Classification Visual patterns can be recognized and classified based on prior knowledge: I see that this hairy animal has four legs and is about the same size as my dog, so I’ll assume it is (or classify it as) a dog. This may not be a correct classification, but it’s more correct than classifying it […]
19 Mar At the Edge of Possibility
Does the universe of probability have boundaries? Are there physical laws that control all phenomena, or is there a mystical, capricious random power out there that is not subject to the laws of physics? Is anything impossible? Physical laws are responsible for thresholds. Let us presume, for a moment, that probability is subject to one overriding […]
15 Mar The Random Hamlet
For building an automated language understanding and translation system, I believe that adding random factors to the model for “fuzzy” reasoning is needed and important. The questions are: How do we use random factors to improve the outcomes of the process? Where do we insert random factors into the model? How do we implement random […]
14 Mar That’s so Random!
Random Probability Theory Some things are difficult to predict, and some are nearly impossible to predict. The further a thing gets from predictable, the more nearly it approaches randomness. It may seem silly to try to define chaos or randomness or anything that spends its entire existence trying to defy definition, but some of us […]
13 Mar Probability and Expectations
The sun is pretty likely to rise tomorrow – you can have confidence in that, but it is sometimes said that “there is no guarantee.” Scheduling meetings tomorrow based on the sunrise assumption is a safe bet, but there may be any number of other things that interfere with the meeting. Life is filled with […]
07 Dec Probability of Understanding Meaning
Some suggest that computers can achieve full language understanding capabilities using statistical models. Others argue that heuristics or programmatic interpretation that uses special procedures tailored to linguistic phenomena. The two camps are as far apart as ever. Consider the comments around this recent article on Tor.com. On the one side, Norvig demonstrates the validity […]