public:t_720_atai:atai-18:lecture_notes_experience-based_learning
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Table of Contents
T-720-ATAI-2018 Main
Links to Lecture Notes
T-720-ATAI-2018
Lecture Notes, W9: Probabilities, Causation & Experience-Based Learning
Experience-Based Learning
| What It Is | Learning is the acquisition of knowledge for particular purposes. When this acquisition happens via interaction with an environment it is experience-based. |
| Why It Is Important | . |
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Causation
| What It Is | A causal variable can (informally) be defined as a variable whose relationship with another variable is such that when changed it will change the other variable. Example: A light switch is designed specifically to cause the light to turn on and off. In a causal analysis based on abduction one may reason that a light that was OFF but is now ON may indicate that someone or something flipped the light switch. (The inverse - a light that was on but is now off - has a larger set of reasonable causes, in addition to someone turning it off, a power outage or bulb burnout. |
| Why It Is Important | Causation is the foundation of empirical science. Without knowledge about causal relations it is impossible to get anything done. |
| History | Hume . |
| More Recent History | Causation has been cast by the wayside in statistics for the past 120 years, saying instead that all we can claim about the relationship of any variables is that they correlate. Needless to say this has lead to significant confusion as to what science can and cannot say about causal relationships, such as whether mobile phones cause cancer. Equally badly, the statistical stance has infected some scientific fields to view causation as “unscientific”. |
| State Of The Art | Recent work by Judea Pearl demonstrates clearly the fallaciousness of the statistical stance, and fixes some important gaps in our knowledge on this subject which hopefully will rectify the situation in the coming years. YouTube lecture by J. Pearl on causation. |
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Probability
| What It Is | . |
| Why It Is Important | . |
| How To Do It | . |
2018©K. R. Thórisson
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