After a long time (5 days), I am posting. I am not sure of why I posted or did not post? The fact of life is, you think something is good for you, then you are all set to implement it. You realize in the mid way that something else was good.
The problem starts here. If in the mid way I realize that what I have chosen is not what I wanted to choose, we may have the option to go back, or we may have no other option left. Then what happens later....
This conflict does not arise when the chose path was followed by many. The conflict is very strong only when the chosen path is not tried and tested. Wait! I read this before. Yes I am right. This was something that I am feeling today. But this is very similar to the things that Robert Frost felt about 91 years back. "The Road Not Taken".
Many times I felt that the decision I had taken was wrong. I should have gone with the other choice. This feeling is very strong when the chances of success in the selected choice is very high. This is what confuses me. The evidence shows that there is more success in this choice. But the intuition says the other way. In such a case I find it practically impossible to take a decision.
I am in this state currently. Should see what I will do.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Perception error
In everything that we perceive there is an error. This error is due to inherent biases that we have.
Recently I had experienced a self serving bias. A peculiar analytical problem was to be solved. The whole batch was given the problem. I was one of those very few people who could say that they have solved the problem.
I went on a little further, I also convinced others that it was correct. I was very happy that I was correct.
Today, a friend of mine asks for the solution, he go throughs it and comes up with places where it would fail.
Now the perception that the problem was solved changes. So, the problem is solved only till no one else can point out that the there is a problem with the solution.
Forget me, consider most famous things. Consider the larger things, the discoveries that are proposed are accepted as benchmarks and are taken for granted. Once another discovery comes saying that the discovery is incorrect/incomplete. Now, the discoverer is pushed out of credit. And this would also happen to the new discoverer, but a little late.
Examples of Geocentric universe, every one liked it, they accpeted it to be universal truth. Later, a really courageous person comes out with a differring opinion, viz. Heliocentric. Now we all know and accept that it is helio centric. Later, it could be changed to some other thing when there is more available information.
Recently I had experienced a self serving bias. A peculiar analytical problem was to be solved. The whole batch was given the problem. I was one of those very few people who could say that they have solved the problem.
I went on a little further, I also convinced others that it was correct. I was very happy that I was correct.
Today, a friend of mine asks for the solution, he go throughs it and comes up with places where it would fail.
Now the perception that the problem was solved changes. So, the problem is solved only till no one else can point out that the there is a problem with the solution.
Forget me, consider most famous things. Consider the larger things, the discoveries that are proposed are accepted as benchmarks and are taken for granted. Once another discovery comes saying that the discovery is incorrect/incomplete. Now, the discoverer is pushed out of credit. And this would also happen to the new discoverer, but a little late.
Examples of Geocentric universe, every one liked it, they accpeted it to be universal truth. Later, a really courageous person comes out with a differring opinion, viz. Heliocentric. Now we all know and accept that it is helio centric. Later, it could be changed to some other thing when there is more available information.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Human Like Machines (HLM)
Good thing about puzzles is that all the required information to understand it completely is available. If we treat life as a puzzle, this point becomes invalid. There is information asymmetry. We don't have all the information. Not even the critical information that is required. If we evaluate life in these terms, it become a more interesting situation.
Dearth of information makes life more interesting. How? Let me explain. If we were to have have access to all the information required, then life is solved for us. This means that a finite set of rules would be enough to tackle any thing related to life. This makes the emulation of human brain in the neural networks successful and complete. This in easier terms will mean that creation of a machine that can think like humans is possible.
Because we can take decisions in the world of information scarcity, and this can't be done by a machine, it is impossible to create a human-replica machine.
Another line of thought could be that even when we don't have access to complete information, we are able to decide based on some heuristics and some rules of thumb, which are rules again. So, it is possible to create a rule-based human-like machine (HLM).
This can be countered with the fact that the depths of these rules of thumbs are unfathomable. Even if they are finite, their application is not fixed. Even if it is fixed, it is mutable, very unlike the characteristics of machines, where the rules to large extent are immutable.
Considering these limitations, machines that emulate humans could be created, but the information that needs to be made explicit is largely tacit, the representation of this information increases the complexity.
There is a trend in terms of identifying the meta rules, the rules that are the basis for the actual rules, this will make the rules more abstract and hence decrease the size of the rules. There is an increasing effort in these directions of exploration for creating HLMs.
Though there are some breakthroughs in creating HLMs, they are largely restrictive and in no measure equal to humans. But with in a given field of expertise, are very handy.
Some day, it would be possible to have a world where the Stephen Spielberg's AI would become a reality. But that is only for future generations to witness.
Dearth of information makes life more interesting. How? Let me explain. If we were to have have access to all the information required, then life is solved for us. This means that a finite set of rules would be enough to tackle any thing related to life. This makes the emulation of human brain in the neural networks successful and complete. This in easier terms will mean that creation of a machine that can think like humans is possible.
Because we can take decisions in the world of information scarcity, and this can't be done by a machine, it is impossible to create a human-replica machine.
Another line of thought could be that even when we don't have access to complete information, we are able to decide based on some heuristics and some rules of thumb, which are rules again. So, it is possible to create a rule-based human-like machine (HLM).
This can be countered with the fact that the depths of these rules of thumbs are unfathomable. Even if they are finite, their application is not fixed. Even if it is fixed, it is mutable, very unlike the characteristics of machines, where the rules to large extent are immutable.
Considering these limitations, machines that emulate humans could be created, but the information that needs to be made explicit is largely tacit, the representation of this information increases the complexity.
There is a trend in terms of identifying the meta rules, the rules that are the basis for the actual rules, this will make the rules more abstract and hence decrease the size of the rules. There is an increasing effort in these directions of exploration for creating HLMs.
Though there are some breakthroughs in creating HLMs, they are largely restrictive and in no measure equal to humans. But with in a given field of expertise, are very handy.
Some day, it would be possible to have a world where the Stephen Spielberg's AI would become a reality. But that is only for future generations to witness.
Puzzling my way through
Today was an eye opener for me. I almost ensconced into a comfortable position, had I not come across this peculiar problem. I was complacent with the way things were going and the way I was able to comfortable live my way through.
Suddenly I come across a problem that looked simple. I tried to solve it. I tried for 15 minutes, then for 30 minutes. Fight continued... I spent about 1 hour, did not succeed.
I suppose I will start working on it as soon as finish my posting here. I believe, life get boring without challenges. If there is a challenge at hand, it feels great thinking about it, working towards cracking the secret.
Once I solve it, I would be satisfied. After that what? I am free again. Searching for more. This will continue ...
Suddenly I come across a problem that looked simple. I tried to solve it. I tried for 15 minutes, then for 30 minutes. Fight continued... I spent about 1 hour, did not succeed.
I suppose I will start working on it as soon as finish my posting here. I believe, life get boring without challenges. If there is a challenge at hand, it feels great thinking about it, working towards cracking the secret.
Once I solve it, I would be satisfied. After that what? I am free again. Searching for more. This will continue ...
Monday, November 28, 2005
Hazaaron khvaishen
"Hazaaron khvaishen aisi ki har khvaish pe dam nikle
bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle..." - Mirza Ghalib
A wonderful depiction of the desires of humans.
We dream, dream a lot, we desire, desire a lot.
We want to achieve, achieve a lot.
Each of these desires are worth trading life, we give everything to achieve them. Once we do that, we have new desires, we start off again. So many such!
When do we actually get satisfied? When do we rest?
This leads to another excellent work, this time an english one, by Robert Frost
"...
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
..."
We never rest, we go further and further, deep into the lovely woods, full of energy and life.
We agree to rest, only when satisifed are we that resting is another journey
"...
And miles to go before I wake,
And miles to go before I wake." (modification by me, just to end the posting).
bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle..." - Mirza Ghalib
A wonderful depiction of the desires of humans.
We dream, dream a lot, we desire, desire a lot.
We want to achieve, achieve a lot.
Each of these desires are worth trading life, we give everything to achieve them. Once we do that, we have new desires, we start off again. So many such!
When do we actually get satisfied? When do we rest?
This leads to another excellent work, this time an english one, by Robert Frost
"...
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
..."
We never rest, we go further and further, deep into the lovely woods, full of energy and life.
We agree to rest, only when satisifed are we that resting is another journey
"...
And miles to go before I wake,
And miles to go before I wake." (modification by me, just to end the posting).
Hipocracy
When I read today's newspaper, I recollected the discussion I had with a friend of mine. The discussion could be summarized as "We take pride in our culture etc. We project a great culture to the outside world. We hide the problems we face. We kill each other. We project moral uprightness, but are we really moral?"
Many of us, talk about respecting women. We don't hesitate promising by our epics. We take pride in proclaiming that we treat women as incarnation of Divinity.
With the same thought, we have daily news of harrasment. We have more than 5 million HIV infected.
When we know all this, why should we push them under the carpet? Why should we hide? Are we doing any great to our selves doing this?
I always believed, and still believe that problem of the society can be solved only when discussed in open. I still can't understand how we would be able to solve them "by castigating" those who come out in the open and try to educate the unaware.
If the mindset of people doesn't change, we would be highly educated but still ignorant. If we thing that there are others to solve this, it won't be solved. Remember "It always starts from the self".
Many of us, talk about respecting women. We don't hesitate promising by our epics. We take pride in proclaiming that we treat women as incarnation of Divinity.
With the same thought, we have daily news of harrasment. We have more than 5 million HIV infected.
When we know all this, why should we push them under the carpet? Why should we hide? Are we doing any great to our selves doing this?
I always believed, and still believe that problem of the society can be solved only when discussed in open. I still can't understand how we would be able to solve them "by castigating" those who come out in the open and try to educate the unaware.
If the mindset of people doesn't change, we would be highly educated but still ignorant. If we thing that there are others to solve this, it won't be solved. Remember "It always starts from the self".
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