Altering things to improve the chances of an event happening
is much better described as a "probabilistic" technique than
a "stochastic" one.
The word "stochastic" just deals with non-determinism, and
fails to capture the notion that odds are being influenced
to produce an outcome.
Cheers,
-Jon
PS:
Here's a nice poem by Kalil Gibran:
Pity The Nation
---------------
Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.
Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave,
eats a bread it does not harvest,
and drinks a wine that flows not from its own wine-press.
Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero,
and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.
Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream,
yet submits in its awakening.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice
save when it walks in a funeral,
boasts not except among its ruins,
and will rebel not save when its neck
is laid between the sword and the block.
Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox,
whose philosopher is a juggler,
and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.
Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting,
and farewells him with hooting,
only to welcome another with trumpeting again.
Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years
and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.
Pity the nation divided into fragments,
each fragment deeming itself a nation.
* Heather Madrone ([email protected]) [110113 12:46]:
> On 1/13/11 8:12 AM January 13, 2011, Deepa Mohan wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 9:36 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>
>> Oh, but he used a word like "stochastic". That, and "meme" and ...
>> catchalls for "if those words get used, the guy is cool and
>> knowledgeable".
>>
>>
>>
>> Ooooh, just what I was thinking. Why do we have to use these
>> "open-the-dicitionary" cooledgeable words? We like to feel that we
>> are being very precise....but we are just being pedantic. Hm, I seem
>> to be falling into the trap too....
> ~
> Pedantry is next to godliness.
>
> And some of us were just born cool. We can't help it....
>
> --
> Heather Madrone ([email protected]) http://www.madrone.com
> http://www.sunsplinter.blogspot.com
>
> I'd love to change the world, but they won't give me access to the source
> code.
>
>
