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<p class="MsoNormal">Meaning, what, exactly?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">That there is game with rules<o:p></o:p></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">That there is a microprocessor and program with a certain order of operations (or not)<o:p></o:p></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">That there are precision limitations<o:p></o:p></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">That it is one class of neural net out of a family of possible architectures? (At the time it was probably single layer neural nets.)<o:p></o:p></li></ol>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I wonder why Minsky decided to be vague? Why is Sussman’s desire to avoid engineering a solution not an appropriate concern? Still to this day there is not really a science on how to choose a neural net connectivity. How many random
leave-outs, how many skip-level links, etc.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> Friam <friam-bounces@redfish.com> <b>On Behalf Of
</b>Prof David West<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, December 4, 2020 8:48 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> friam@redfish.com<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [FRIAM] hacker koan<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">"What are you doing?"</span></i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> asked Minsky.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">"I am training a randomly wired neural net to play</span></i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> Tic-Tac-Toe,"</span></i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> Sussman replied.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">"Why is the net wired randomly?"</span></i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> asked Minsky.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play,"</span></i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> Sussman said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Minsky then shut his eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">"Why do you close your eyes?"
</span></i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Sussman asked his teacher.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">"So that the room will be empty."</span></i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">davew<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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