Category Archives: quote

Godwin’s Law

Also from Kuro5hin:

“Godwin’s Law: As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

popularly understood as “the first person in an argument to refer to Hitler or the Nazis loses the argument”, but it isn’t a law like “murder is a crime” is a law. It’s more like Newton’s Laws–not something that can be “invoked” or “violated”, but an observation of the surrounding world.

Godwin’s corollary: When someone takes an unofficial “law” like Godwin’s or Moore’s too seriously and writes new corollaries for it, they automatically lose.

*ponders…*

I concede defeat! :o”

Attractors

“The action of a recurrent network in converging upon the final output involves a sequence through a series of states. It is the operation of the network state stepping sequentially toward the final result that is described by the term attractor. This developing sequence is most clearly seen when shown as a phase diagram. The diagrams here almost make the right point, but, in my opinion, do not adequately present the idea of the phase space. This issue would all be inconsequential were it not for the confusion which arises in thinking of any pattern recognizer as an attractor. I find an unfortunate tendency in some other places for the term to be devalued by its use in this latter sense. “

– Lloyd Rice (emphasis mine)

The Cog team

“Three conceptual errors commonly made by classical AI researchers are presuming the presence of monolithic internal models, monolithic control, and the existence of general purpose processing. These and other errors primarily derive from naive models based on subjective observation and introspection, and biases from common computational metaphors (mathematical logic, Von Neumann architectures, etc.). A modern understanding of cognitive science and neuroscience refutes these assumptions.
– Alternative Essences of Intelligence

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”