>I would like to tell a very personal story, to get the reactions of people
>on this list to an interesting intellectual puzzle.
>
That is quite a story.
Here is a story that is not so personal and is, I admit, a change in topic,
but I am curious about what proponents of Bayesian networks have to say.
A salesperson from my company approached the commandant of an Air Force base
in order to sell him on the use of Bayesian networks for a space related
application. From what the salesperson told me, the general had two things
to say:
(1) "Bayes. Isn't he the guy who tried to prove the existence of God
mathematically?" [That, I take it, was a put down].
(2) "We tried Bayesian networks many years ago and they gave terrible
results. Had us thinking the Ruskies were sending missiles at us all the
time, while our usual system [I guess that is a deterministic one], was more
accurate."
My questions are:
Did Bayes try to do that -- prove the existence of God? I haven't seen a
reference to Bayes in this thread.
Has any one heard about the use of Bayesian networks for detecting enemy
missile launches at the US, and if the project ended in failure, why?
Bob Welch
