IUBio

Announcement: ANML Web Site (SPOILER)

David Longley David at longley.demon.co.uk
Thu Jan 22 06:01:34 EST 1998


The  problem with the self-educated is that more often  than  not 
they  miss out on the benefits of formal education and  get  even 
the fundamentals wrong. This certainly seems to apply in Savain's 
case. After all of the hype, I looked at the advertised web site. 
It  confirmed what I have said elsewhere before the site was  put 
up.

On  the basis of what is written there, my assessment is that  it 
represents  a rather shallow assimilation of ideas  discussed  in 
the like of comp.ai groups over the past year or so, supplemented 
by a similar shallow understanding of some neuroscience research, 
probably  picked up via popular science summaries.  That's  about 
the  only  way  anyone  could have  the  written  such  grandiose 
nonsense on the basis of so little.

I have no quibble with the notion that contingency is central  to 
conditioning (this has been central to learning theory for thirty 
years.  Nor  do I have any quibble with the  idea  that  temporal 
contiguity  is  critical  to conditioning,  that  too   has  been 
central  to conditioning at the neuronal level for decades  (it's 
also  central  to how logic gates and other  circuitry  works  of 
course).  I have discussed the developments of the  Rescorla  and 
Wagner   research  in  the  context  of  learning  Theory   quite 
extensively over the past couple of years, and have even done  so 
in the context of ANNs. However, what's written at the Savain web 
site  is really just a pastiche of ideas with a lot of  grandiose 
leaps  and  promises  which are symptomatic of a  basic  lack  of 
understanding and would be reprimanded if submitted as a piece of 
undergraduate work. To redress these deficits Savain will need to 
invest  more time and effort in finding out what the research  is 
really all about.

Tagging  on  a few references which others such as  myself  haved 
mentioned is not going to fool anyone.
-- 
David Longley (check end reply line #)

Longley Consulting                                                  London, UK
Behaviour Assessment & Profiling Technology,
Research, Data Analysis and Training Services,
Small IT Systems                                http://www.longley.demon.co.uk

I have no quibble with the notion that contingency is central  to 
conditioning  (this  having been central to learning  theory  for 
thirty  years).  Nor  do I have any quibble with  the  idea  that 
temporal contiguity is critical to conditioning, as that too  has 
been  central to conditioning at the neuronal level  for  decades 
(it's  also central to how logic gates and other circuitry  works 
of course).

What's  written  at the Savain web site is a  pastiche  of  ideas 
drawn  from  interesting  discussions elsewhere. It  is  full  of 
grandiose  leaps  and promises which are symptomatic of  a  basic 
lack of understanding. 


-- 
David Longley (check end reply line #)

Longley Consulting                                                  London, UK
Behaviour Assessment & Profiling Technology,
Research, Data Analysis and Training Services,
Small IT Systems                                http://www.longley.demon.co.uk


David Longley (check end reply line #)

Longley Consulting                                                  London, UK
Behaviour Assessment & Profiling Technology,
Research, Data Analysis and Training Services,
Small IT Systems                                http://www.longley.demon.co.uk




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