It's still important that the little cogs in the big machine are not broken, though ;)
Anyway we have similar issues in OpenCog and deal with them via context-specific quantile normalization as I noted above. The heuristic I suggested to you earlier works but you need to specify a reference context which is associated with some distribution of numbers. I don't see how to avoid this relativity to a reference context without sinking into meaninglessness... ben On Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 12:02 PM, Piaget Modeler <[email protected]>wrote: > You are correct context is very important, and it is meaningless to say > > 1000 ~ 100 = 0.0011098 > > Numeric similarity is a small cog in a larger machine. > > We can talk about it later if you want. > > Cheers, > > ~PM > > ------------------------------ > Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 11:48:14 +0800 > > Subject: Re: [agi] Numeric Similarity > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > > But that is almost meaningless > > For instance, it says > > similarity(1000000, 1001000) = 1/ 1001 > > which is very small > > yet, in many contexts (e.g. city populations), those numbers would be > considered very similar > > You need to consider the context in order to have a useful, general > numeric similarity measure > > Unless you already have some implicit context you are not mentioning.. > > ben > > > On Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 11:44 AM, Piaget Modeler < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Two measures: > > The first measure 1 - | a - b | where a = 1000, and b = 100 > .: -900. > > I said that I wasn't quite happy with this measure but the value is still > less than 1. > So I was willing to work with it. > > The second measure 1 / ( 1 + | a - b |) where a = 1000, and b = 100 > .: 0.0011098 > > The second measure is better because the value falls within the range -1 > to +1. > > So I'm happier with Aaron Hosford's recommendation. > > > Michael. > > ------------------------------ > Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 10:59:23 +0800 > > Subject: Re: [agi] Numeric Similarity > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > > I don't understand... > > if a=1000 and b = 100, then > > a-b=900 > > so > > 1 - | a - b | = 1-900 = -899 > > That doesn't make sense as a similarity score... > > Your posited measure seems only applicable when |a-b|<=1, which indeed > would be the case if a and b lie in [-1.1] > > -- Ben > > > On Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 10:56 AM, Piaget Modeler < > [email protected]> wrote: > > A and B are any two numbers that can be represented computationally. > > We are looking for the similarity of any two numbers as part of a larger > similarity based matching scheme. The function Aaron provided will allow > the similarity to be computed in the range 0 .. +1 which is fine. As long > as it's between -1 and +1 it will do. > > Cheers, > > Michael. > > ------------------------------ > Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 09:54:20 +0800 > > Subject: Re: [agi] Numeric Similarity > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > > I assume your numbers a and b are between -1 and 1? you didn't mention > that in your original email ! ... > > On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 10:02 PM, Piaget Modeler < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks to all respondents. > > In the end I found a classic numeric similarity metric: 1 - | a - b | > > It's not ideal since numeric scores can dominate other attribute scores. > Ergo, I have to devise a good weighting scheme. > > Nothing's perfect I suppose. > > Cheers, > > ~ PM > > > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/212726-deec6279> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > > > > > -- > Ben Goertzel, PhD > http://goertzel.org > > "In an insane world, the sane man must appear to be insane". -- Capt. > James T. Kirk > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/19999924-4a978ccc> | > Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/212726-deec6279> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > > > > > -- > Ben Goertzel, PhD > http://goertzel.org > > "In an insane world, the sane man must appear to be insane". -- Capt. > James T. Kirk > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/19999924-4a978ccc> | > Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/212726-deec6279> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > > > > > -- > Ben Goertzel, PhD > http://goertzel.org > > "In an insane world, the sane man must appear to be insane". -- Capt. > James T. Kirk > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/19999924-4a978ccc> | > Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/212726-deec6279> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > -- Ben Goertzel, PhD http://goertzel.org "In an insane world, the sane man must appear to be insane". -- Capt. James T. Kirk ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
