Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 1306
MeFi post:
Bite me, Larry Summers.
How did they compare complex problem-solving activity?
Given the near-parity among boys and girls in the number of undergraduate math degrees, it is surprising that Putnam Fellows tend to be overwhelmingly male.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 12:29 AM on July 25, 2008
MeFi post:
I sense you want to plead the 5th
In a 2006 interview with the developer, he claims that "only two people in the world have done any significant research in the field of forensic sciences using electrical oscillation". Solid evidence base, there.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 8:10 AM on July 21, 2008
On loading quonsar's linked Powerpoint file, I see 3 slides, the last of which says, "Please contact the author/editor of the ICFMT for the complete presentation"
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 8:12 AM on July 21, 2008
MeFi post:
Is Day Care a luxury or a benefit?
sodd: Google didn't want to go public. They were forced to by Section XII(g) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934.
That's not what the link says. The rules forced them to disclose their accounting, but nothing directly to do with going public.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 1:03 PM on July 5, 2008
MeFi post:
Brimful of Kumar
jagorev, Mahadevan has admitted to taking breaths in between, they're just well disguised.
guruji is a decent search engine for Hindi songs.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 11:21 PM on June 16, 2008
MeFi post:
So, you thought Cricket was for sissies, aye?
Cricket needs new blood. You can't hope to successfully promote a game if the preferred format is one that takes upto 7 hours a day for 5 days running. Furthermore, in a fast-paced world, even the 8 hour long ODI format is too long to elicit interest, and has to start during work-hours . Not all ODIs in the recent Australia tri-series had a full house, and that series involved many of the best ODI teams in the world.
It's really telling that the International Cricket... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 6:49 AM on March 20, 2008
MrMerlot: I love cricket because of its length and complexity.
Those factors are deterrents when you don't know the game to begin with, and you have competing recreational options.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 7:06 AM on March 20, 2008
MeFi post:
Prozac doesn't work better than placebo
TheOnlyCoolTim: Has anyone tested this? Could the placebo effect recurse? That is, can people knowingly take a placebo hoping that the placebo effect will help them and have that twice-removed hope help them?
Not really.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 12:58 AM on February 26, 2008
MeFi post:
The island where eye color can kill you.
For n = 4, each person knows that there are 3 other persons with blue eyes.
The foreigner makes his comment but doesn't specify the person or an upper-bound.
So each could simply think none of the other three would be sure of their own status (analogous to our subject) and hence, no suicide expected, and no suicides.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 11:11 AM on February 15, 2008
Come to think of it, even with n=3, there ought to be no suicides.
You have A, B, C as blue-eyes.
A doesn't commit suicide as he sees B & C with blue-eyes.
A expects that B expects C to commit suicide (A knows that B can see C).
A expects that C expects B to commit suicide (A knows that C can see B)
A hence realizes that neither will do so, and not because A himself is blue-eyed.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 11:30 AM on February 15, 2008
Ok, yeah, it's death all around.
Let me explicate in detail for n = 4
Day 0
Foreigner's State of the Union address
A sees B,C,D.
A expects B to see C&D and avoid suicide. Similar for others.
A expects B to expect of C & D that each will expect the other to commit suicide.
Day 1
No suicides.
A expects B to expect C & D to be surprised of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 12:11 PM on February 15, 2008
If one factors in uncertainty within Theory of Mind of others, then it's much more unclear.
For n = 5
1 sees 2, 3, 4, 5
1 thinks there are atleast 4 and upto 5
1 believes 2 to see 3, 4, 5 and maybe 1
1 believes 2 to think either there are atleast 3(3,4,5) or 4(3,4,5,1 OR 3,4,5,2) and maybe 5(3,4,5,1,2)
1 believes 2 to believe that 3 sees 4, 5 and maybe 1, 2
1... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 2:02 AM on February 16, 2008
Yes, the ultimate question is "Do I have blue eyes?" but the answer is not presented and has to be deduced by the person himself. So, there's an implicit model of behavior of other agents adopted by the subject i.e. Theory of Mind, to interpret actions of others.
Our initial subject starts by acknowledging that they don't know their own eye-color i.e. there's uncertainty. They ought to allow for the same factor when simulating nested others' thoughts... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 3:00 AM on February 16, 2008
But if they know that the question “Do I have blue eyes?” is going to be answered at a specific time
But it's not going to be answered at any time. No one's telling the first person that she has blue eyes. She is modelling the thoughts of other persons to predict their behavior and then observing the outcome to generate inferences. The notion that the time-series of suicides is indicative of so & so is not an... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 4:59 AM on February 16, 2008
cortex: Each villager just posits an assumption. They take an unknown, and they plug in a presumption: "I don't know my eye color, so I'll assume as a hypothetical that my eyes are not blue; and given that assumption, I'll reason in my mind what the folks I know to have blue eyes are thinking to themselves."
Assigning this assumption unto the subject's thinking is a choice by the problem-solver and isn't implicit within the problem statement.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 9:19 AM on February 16, 2008
XMLicious: That's an instruction to disregard the sort of mental gymnastics you keep bringing up
And as I'm trying to say in other words, it's the mental gymnastics that lead to the notion to wait for n-1 days before deducing one's own eye colors. Elaborate the mechanics of how any person in the game comes to have that notion to wait for n-1 days. It's not an axiom.
DevilsAdvocate: It doesn't make a difference whether... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 10:34 PM on February 16, 2008
samw: Gyan's confusion stems from supposing that in the nested experiments, A must guess at what the others know. But this isn't the case: it is a supposition of the thought experiment that A has non-blue eyes.
As I mentioned above, if the supposition is allowed, then the suicides follow, but the relevant part of the problem statement only says,
...
All the tribespeople are highly logical and devout, and they all know that each... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 2:03 AM on February 17, 2008
samw, they can suppose, but they don't have to, and with 99 BEIs, there's a whole lotta suppositions to assume, and whose implications to work out. Is there a solution that doesn't rely on inducting from n=1 or 2 or 3 or assuming that the basic pattern remains true of large numbers?
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 11:17 AM on February 17, 2008
Flunkie: the accepted solution (for n=100) requires induction, as Tao uses. It assumes that the structure for 100 is the same as that for 3, only more layers. The hypothesis for induction assumes that inherently:If I am not blue-eyed, then there will only be n-1 blue-eyed people on this island, and so they will all commit suicide n-1 days after the traveler’s addressIs there a solution besides manual calculations that doesn't rely on that assumption? My essential question is given uncertainty... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 12:10 AM on February 18, 2008
My last comment:
XMLicious, Flunkie: again, the inductive hypothesis that n-1 BEIs will kill themselves after n-1 days is not a first principle. It's a pattern inferred from the mental gymnastics. So, the inductive proof assumes that the pattern holds without regard for the magnitude of n, and so all that is left to do is demonstrate the claim for n=1 and then induct along the line of positive integers. My key objection is that the inductive hypothesis... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 6:11 AM on February 19, 2008
You guys keep pulling me back in.
This is Tao's proof, with my emphasis:
Now suppose inductively that n is larger than 1. Each blue-eyed person will reason as follows: “If I am not blue-eyed, then there will only be n-1 blue-eyed people on this island, and so they will all commit suicide n-1 days after the traveler’s address”. But when n-1 days pass, none of the blue-eyed people do so (because at that stage they have no evidence that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 5:00 AM on February 20, 2008
MeFi post:
"When the world's great scientific thinkers change their minds"
Strictly speaking, not a double.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 7:15 AM on February 12, 2008
agent: Similarly, we can note biological inequality without implying biological superiority or inferiority.
Well, most people don't care about the ordering of imaginary numbers relative to real numbers. Some biological traits, most notably intelligence, are assigned value judgments by people and it's not really possible for scientists to banish such thinking.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 9:01 AM on February 12, 2008
MeFi post:
Questioning Consciousness
The only way to find out, I'd say, would be to take seriously the idea that consciousness is a trick, and think through what further questions would follow at a scientific level.
...
In response to sensory stimulation, we react with an evolutionarily ancient form of internalized bodily expression (something like an inner grimace or smile). We then experience this as sensation when we form an inner picture—by monitoring the command signals—of just what we are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 12:22 PM on January 30, 2008
MeFi post:
How well do you know your own thoughts?
bruce: it will remain impossible to accurately describe our thoughts until a modality of description comes along which is as fast as thinking.
Even then, either self-reference or memory bites you.
If you have a thought and then, just after, go about describing it, there's some time gap between thought and description i.e. memory employed.
If you attempt to transcribe your thoughts in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 9:24 PM on January 13, 2008
afu: A blind person could study color vision and objectively understand why we have the subjective experience of color
Has this already been done?
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 2:32 AM on January 14, 2008
afu: the subjective experience of seeing color is irrelevent to the study of it
In which case, how do you know it's irrelevant?
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 5:30 AM on January 14, 2008
MeFi post:
Cricket : India Complains of bad umpiring
Well, Murali Karthik didn't walk, despite knowing he nicked one to the keeper, in the last ODI against Australia played at home. That almost certainly enabled India to win the match. These things happen, although the frequency in this game is notable.
Umpires' word is final, but the whole reason for umpires in the first place is the need for neutrality. If umpires don't maintain the confidence of that neutrality among players, then they can't do their job well. I'm... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 2:13 AM on January 4, 2008
three blind mice: I said neutral, not perfect. What's irked many Indian fans is the number of bad decisions against them within a day's play, not the mere fact of a bad decision.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 4:07 AM on January 4, 2008
plant: The linked story on expressindia.com only reports on some of the bad decisions that went in Australia's favour, not even mentioning that a few have benefited India
Like which?
Someone should compiled a video-linked list of all controversial decisions in this game.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 12:23 AM on January 6, 2008
MeFi post:
Should I post this?
Of note -
(p2 #3)
Freeman Dyson: I changed my mind about an important historical question: did the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bring World War Two to an end? Until this year I used to say, perhaps. Now, because of new facts, I say no.
(p4 #1)
Keith Devlin: What is the nature of mathematics? Becoming a mathematician in the 1960s, I swallowed hook, line, and sinker the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 1:55 AM on January 1, 2008
Of note, part deux -
(p13 #3)
Gerd Gigerenzer: In a 2007 radio advertisement, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani said, "I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chances of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it — in the United States: 82 percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44 percent under socialized medicine." Giuliani was lucky to be living in New York, and not in York — true?...... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 2:42 AM on January 1, 2008
MeFi post:
Infringement Nation
Copyright holders are interested in protecting established & speculated concrete sources of revenue. Some of the hypothetical prosecutions in his gedankenexperiment are very, very unlikely.
To take this example:
The very technologies that enhance our media experiences are rapidly bringing us closer to the Panopticon state in which a near-total enforcement of intellectual property rights becomes viable. With the requisite advances in voice recognition... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 8:07 AM on November 26, 2007
grimmelm: he claims that his treatment of fair use is plausible (I assume he meant legally)
For the purposes of this Gedankenexperiment, we assume the worst-case scenario of full enforcement of rights by copyright holders and an uncharitable, though perfectly plausible, reading of existing case law and the fair use doctrine. Fair use is, after all, notoriously fickle and the defense offers little ex ante refuge to users of copyrighted works
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 8:51 AM on November 26, 2007
Mental Wimp: Survey research has shown that the very downloaders they go after are some of the biggest purchasers as well
My claim's only proven false if the public-at-large believes this as well. Doesn't matter whether the survey results are true or not or whether the RIAA is going after their best customers or not. By the way, I'd like to see a couple of such surveys. Any links?
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 10:40 PM on November 27, 2007
MeFi post:
To Read or Not to Read
afu: check out Tools -- > Statistics for the following entries:
* 100 most cited works
* 100 most cited works by philosophers in MindPapers according to Google Scholar
* 100 most cited works by scientists
* Citations per entry per journal
* 100 most viewed online articles
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 7:02 AM on October 25, 2007
GeckoDundee: Anything by Dennett is always going to be good fodder for a takedown.
Corrected that for you.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 7:37 AM on October 25, 2007
MeFi post:
GMR
Worth a Nobel Prize or two.
Now, how do I backdate this comment? Oh, forget it.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 7:26 AM on October 9, 2007
MeFi post:
Ganesh Chaturthi
Aglaa varshee nantar ya
Oww! Ganpati celebrations have sure changed since I was last in Mumbai. Fireworks, and so many of them?!
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 11:22 PM on September 16, 2007
MeFi post:
Brittney, please meet Ottorino.
1)Define 'music'
2)Assert 'purpose' of music
3)Define 'pop' music
4)Define 'classical' music
Wolfdog can start.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 7:03 AM on August 23, 2007
Gambit? It's helpful to elucidate what you're talking about, before you start talking about it.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 8:20 AM on August 23, 2007
MeFi post:
Happy Sixtieth!
That wasn't a victory, it was a tie, since the first match wasn't really a draw. Yeah, but since the series score reads 1-0, the Indian team's going to gloat over how they kicked Pommy ass.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 12:27 AM on August 15, 2007
Also, hadjiboy, did you see yesterday's TOI cover? Cheesy.
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan
at 12:36 AM on August 15, 2007
