Interesting note: by the time the conference was taking place, Goedel already had articulated the correct approach to item 4 in his letter to Von Neumann (http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/the-gdel-letter/).
An entire field of statistics, dealing with uncertainty, and learning from data was already in existence for two hundred years. This field already knew logic was hopeless for addressing the complexities of the real world. Physicists had already invented primitive graphical models by then (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ising_model), a working theory of “neural nets” already existed in the guise of theory of non-linear regression (http://www.tinbergen.nl/discussionpapers/02119.pdf), etc.
The lesson seems to me to be this: big gains lurk in having the humility to engage in comprehensive scholarship and integration of existing advances. Being widely read, and speaking and translating many specialized languages.
Interesting note: by the time the conference was taking place, Goedel already had articulated the correct approach to item 4 in his letter to Von Neumann (http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/the-gdel-letter/).
An entire field of statistics, dealing with uncertainty, and learning from data was already in existence for two hundred years. This field already knew logic was hopeless for addressing the complexities of the real world. Physicists had already invented primitive graphical models by then (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ising_model), a working theory of “neural nets” already existed in the guise of theory of non-linear regression (http://www.tinbergen.nl/discussionpapers/02119.pdf), etc.
The lesson seems to me to be this: big gains lurk in having the humility to engage in comprehensive scholarship and integration of existing advances. Being widely read, and speaking and translating many specialized languages.
Interesting data points, thanks!