I think this is sort of sideways. It’s true, but I think it also misses the deeper aspects of the theory I have in mind.
Yes, from easily observed behavior that’s what it looks like: exploitation is about minimizing prediction error and exploration is about, if not maximizing it, then at least not minimizing it. But the theory says that if we see exploration and the theory is correct, then exploration must somehow to built of out things that are ultimately trying to minimize prediction error.
I hope to give a more precise, mathematical explanation of this theory in the future, but for now I’ll give the best English language explanation I can of how exploration might work (keeping in mind we should be able to eventually find out exactly how it works if this theory is right with sufficient brain scanning technology).
I suspect exploration happens because a control system in the brain takes as input how much error minimization it observes as measured by how many good and bad signals get sent in other control systems. It then has a set point for some relatively stable and hard to update amount of bad signals it expects to see, and if it has not been seeing enough surprise/mistakes then it starts sending its own bad signals encouraging “restlessness” or “exploration”. This is similar to my explanation of creativity from another comment.
I think this is sort of sideways. It’s true, but I think it also misses the deeper aspects of the theory I have in mind.
Yes, from easily observed behavior that’s what it looks like: exploitation is about minimizing prediction error and exploration is about, if not maximizing it, then at least not minimizing it. But the theory says that if we see exploration and the theory is correct, then exploration must somehow to built of out things that are ultimately trying to minimize prediction error.
I hope to give a more precise, mathematical explanation of this theory in the future, but for now I’ll give the best English language explanation I can of how exploration might work (keeping in mind we should be able to eventually find out exactly how it works if this theory is right with sufficient brain scanning technology).
I suspect exploration happens because a control system in the brain takes as input how much error minimization it observes as measured by how many good and bad signals get sent in other control systems. It then has a set point for some relatively stable and hard to update amount of bad signals it expects to see, and if it has not been seeing enough surprise/mistakes then it starts sending its own bad signals encouraging “restlessness” or “exploration”. This is similar to my explanation of creativity from another comment.