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Learning the Preference of Bounded Agents (REVIEW)
This paper applies models of bounded and biased cognition to the creation of a generative model for human choices in decision problems. Perhaps more importantly, the authors attempt to infer preferences (not beliefs) from this model.
They focus their attention on four types of agents:
Hyperbolic-discounting (i.e. my favorite new way of saying procrastinating) Agents using Monte Carlo approximations of expected utility “Myopic” agents Bounded value-of-information agents Choice is made in proportion to a softmax function of expected utility:
Mathematics - Applications and Applicability (REVIEW)
“Mathematics - Application and Applicability”, by Mark Steiner.
Included in The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science (2011). Edited by Bruce L. Gordon and William A. Dembski. ISI Books: Wilmington, Deleware.
Key ideas Canonical applications (theories developed to describe an application) vs. non-canonical (applying mathematics in situations other than those that created them) Distinguishing applications of mathematics from mathematics itself Exploration of individual thinkers and their attempts to reconcile mathematics and the empirical world (including Gottlob Frege, Hartry Field, Eugene Wigner), with the group-theoretic leading the charge
Charting Public Policy for RL Systems
Choices, Risks, and Reward Reports: Charting Public Policy for RL Systems. Thomas Krendl Gilbert, Sarah Dean, Tom Zick, Nathan Lambert (CLTC, 2022).
With new machine learning advances comes new risks. This white paper addresses the risks associcated with Reinforcement Learning with an aime to empower policy makers with some richer understanding to ensure safety. The unique challenges facing RL are summed up well in the intro - “In ML, the primary risks have to do with outputs that a model generates.
What Comes After Minds?
What comes after minds? by Marvin Minsky. From The New Humanists: Science at the Edge (2003). Edited by John Brockman. Barnes & Noble Books: New York.
Key quotes “No uniform scheme will lead to machines as resourceful as the human brain. Instead, I’m convinced that this will require many different ‘ways to think’ - along with bodies of knowledge about how and when to use them”. “Computer science has helped us envision a far wider range of ways to represent different types and forms of knowledge,…” “I see each emotional state as a distinctly different way to think”.