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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>All, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I feel like this relates to a discussion held during Nerd Hour at the end of last Friday’s vfriam. I was arguing that given, say, a string of numbers, and no information external to that string, that no AI could detect “order” unless it already possessed a theory of what order is. I found the discussion distressing because I thought the point was trivial but all the smart people in the conversation were arguing against me. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>n <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Nicholas Thompson<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Clark University<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com"><span style='color:#0563C1'>ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> Friam <friam-bounces@redfish.com> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Jochen Fromm<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, November 30, 2020 3:15 PM<br><b>To:</b> The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [FRIAM] New ways of understanding the world<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>The success of Google's deep learning program in predicting protein folding is impressive. Maybe that is what he meant.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03348-4">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03348-4</a><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>-J.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div id="composer_signature"><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:#575757'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>-------- Original message --------<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>From: Steve Smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Date: 11/30/20 21:55 (GMT+01:00) <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>To: <a href="mailto:friam@redfish.com">friam@redfish.com</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Subject: Re: [FRIAM] New ways of understanding the world <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><p>Or a "model of nothing fit to everything we know: useful or merely wrong?"<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 11/30/20 1:41 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><p class=MsoNormal>Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired, asks if a computer can find a theory of everything merely by learning from data. Unfortunately most deep learning models are like a black box which delivers good results but is hard to understand. Would a theory of everything be a theory of nothing? It reminds me of Russell Standish's book "theory of nothing".<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.wired.com/2008/06/pb-theory/">https://www.wired.com/2008/06/pb-theory/</a> <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>-J.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><pre>- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>un/subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>archives: <a href="http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/">http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a> <o:p></o:p></pre></blockquote></div></body></html>