Hi Pei, This is an interesting perspective; I just want to clarify for others on the list that it is a particular and controversial perspective, and contradicts the perspectives of many other well-informed research professionals and deep thinkers on relevant topics.
Many serious thinkers in the area *do* consider Occam's Razor a standalone postulate. This fits in naturally with the Bayesian perspective, in which one needs to assume *some* prior distribution, so one often assumes some sort of Occam prior (e.g. the Solomonoff-Levin prior, the speed prior, etc.) as a standalone postulate. Hume pointed out that induction (in the old sense of extrapolating from the past into the future) is not solvable except by introducing some kind of a priori assumption. Occam's Razor, in one form or another, is a suitable a prior assumption to plug into this role. If you want to replace the Occam's Razor assumption with the assumption that "the world is predictable by systems with limited resources, and we will prefer explanations that consume less resources", that seems unproblematic as it's basically equivalent to assuming an Occam prior. On the other hand, I just want to point out that to get around Hume's complaint you do need to make *some* kind of assumption about the regularity of the world. What kind of assumption of this nature underlies your work on NARS (if any)? ben On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 8:58 AM, Pei Wang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Triggered by several recent discussions, I'd like to make the > following position statement, though won't commit myself to long > debate on it. ;-) > > Occam's Razor, in its original form, goes like "entities must not be > multiplied beyond necessity", and it is often stated as "All other > things being equal, the simplest solution is the best" or "when > multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle > recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions > and postulates the fewest entities" --- all from > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor> > > I fully agree with all of the above statements. > > However, to me, there are two common misunderstandings associated with > it in the context of AGI and philosophy of science. > > (1) To take this statement as self-evident or a stand-alone postulate > > To me, it is derived or implied by the insufficiency of resources. If > a system has sufficient resources, it has no good reason to prefer a > simpler theory. > > (2) To take it to mean "The simplest answer is usually the correct answer." > > This is a very different statement, which cannot be justified either > analytically or empirically. When theory A is an approximation of > theory B, usually the former is simpler than the latter, but less > "correct" or "accurate", in terms of its relation with all available > evidence. When we are short in resources and have a low demand on > accuracy, we often prefer A over B, but it does not mean that by doing > so we judge A as more correct than B. > > In summary, in choosing among alternative theories or conclusions, the > preference for simplicity comes from shortage of resources, though > simplicity and correctness are logically independent of each other. > > Pei > > > ------------------------------------------- > agi > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ > Modify Your Subscription: > https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > -- Ben Goertzel, PhD CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC Director of Research, SIAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -- Robert Heinlein ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=117534816-b15a34 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
