[ml] question on interests

Tue Jul 19 06:13:58 UTC 2011

Though, conversely:

http://xkcd.com/863/

;)

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 10:41 PM, Kai Chang <kai.salmon.chang at gmail.com>wrote:

> I found an open text on general systems science that motivates its need and
> aims much better than I can, by Buckminster Fuller:
>
> "We are in an age that assumes the narrowing trends of specialization to be
> logical, natural, and desirable. Consequently, society expects all earnestly
> responsible communication to be crisply brief... In the meantime, humanity
> has been deprived of comprehensive understanding. Specialization has bred
> feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also
> resulted in the individual's leaving responsibility for thinking and social
> action to others. Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as
> international and ideological discord, which, in turn, leads to war."...
>
> http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/intro/well.html
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 9:13 PM, Kai Chang <kai.salmon.chang at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Mike,
>>
>> Those examples are spot on. Actually I think Glenn's hit a great point
>> which is my frustration with ML isn't that I'm not into the algorithms, it's
>> that I rarely have data in any shape to analyze. Data hacking is a great
>> term for what I'd like to do.
>>
>> I'm also interested in sociology, where there are many system theories and
>> interesting thinkers. These theories are not necessary to hack on health
>> care data, but can help in interpreting the meaning of the data. In general,
>> I don't find these theories to be empirically testable. They either appeal
>> to and subsequently inform my intuitions, or they do not.
>>
>> Some examples of such thinkers and their focus are:
>>
>> Talcott Parsons (living systems, general theory)
>> Karl Marx (capitalism and social identification)
>> John Dewey (individual and environment, democracy)
>> Erving Goffman (interaction and everyday life)
>> Niklas Luhmann (communication, systems theory)
>> Deleuze (philosophical systems, psychadelic complexity theory)
>>
>> They are all important to me as I struggle to turn my interest in data
>> hacking from toy projects into meaningful political action with other
>> people.
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 8:06 PM, Mike Schachter <mike at mindmech.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Glenn, Kai,
>>>
>>> My personal interests are in Neuroscience and my
>>> interest in ML started with generalized linear models,
>>> information theory, moved towards neural nets and deep
>>> nets, and is continuing to move towards generic graphical
>>> models.
>>>
>>> I also have some experience with dynamical systems
>>> models of actual brain cells. Kai, when you say "systems
>>> theory", what do you refer to? Like, cellular automata?
>>> Complexity? Dynamical systems? Stuff like markov decision
>>> processes?
>>>
>>> Because ML meetup content as been so sparse over the
>>> past year, I'd really encourage you to just take up ML time
>>> with anything you'd like to talk about. Anything related to
>>> complex systems, AI, machine learning, or statistics should
>>> be fair game, in my opinion, and I'd definitely like to hear
>>> more about what you're interested in. Same goes for everyone
>>> else.
>>>
>>>  mike
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 7:51 PM, Kai Chang <kai.salmon.chang at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> > Also, I think this topic is well outside the scope of Machine Learning.
>>> We
>>> > should find a different time to meet, and consider starting our own
>>> group if
>>> > there's enough interest.
>>> >
>>> > On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 7:45 PM, Kai Chang <kai.salmon.chang at gmail.com
>>> >
>>> > wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> I have a strong interest in systems theory and would be interested in
>>> >> discussing these topics.
>>> >>
>>> >> On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 6:56 PM, Brian Morris <cymraegish at gmail.com>
>>> >> wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I have some interest in Economics and population biology / evolution,
>>> and
>>> >>> human language / communication, wrt systems of interacting autonomous
>>> >>> agents.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> There's a rather frustrating gap right now for me between the science
>>> and
>>> >>> computing in my own personal situation which I would greatly like to
>>> narrow.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I'm sorry if it didn't come across.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I'm not sure how you mean social networks if like in Facebook user
>>> >>> profiling which is a current app that companies are interested in a
>>> lot, or
>>> >>> if you mean more like classical social sciences about social
>>> processes (like
>>> >>> economic systems, or altruistic behaviour, or some topics like that).
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 6:47 PM, Glenn Wright
>>> >>> <infinite.perplexity at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> Can I just throw a question out there on interests?  A lot of the
>>> >>>> discussions on this list have been about artificial intelligence,
>>> image
>>> >>>> recognition, and stuff like that.  Is that typical of the interests
>>> of
>>> >>>> people on the ML group?  My data andstatistical interests lie more
>>> in the
>>> >>>> area of social sciences, health care, social networks, and stuff
>>> like that.
>>> >>>> Anyone else share similar interests?
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> --
>>> >>>> -Glenn
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> >>>> ml at lists.noisebridge.net
>>> >>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/ml
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> _______________________________________________
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>>> >>>
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> >
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>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>
>>
>
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-- 
-Glenn
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