Joe Petviashvili

Suppose that human beings had absolutely no idea how they performed arithmetic. Imagine that human beings had evolved, rather than having learned, the ability to count sheep and add sheep.

Q. How can I find the priors for a problem? A. Many commonly used priors are listed in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Q. Where do priors originally come from? A. Never ask that question. Q. Uh huh. Then more...

The problem is that fundamentally we suck at symbolic reasoning, quite contrary to many people's assumptions. We simulate the process of logical thought by modeling perceptual patterns that generally coincide with it. The reason all those AI systems failed is more...

When I grew up I read the Feynman Lectures on Physics, and discovered a gem called 'the wave equation'. I thought about that equation, on and off for three days, until I saw to my satisfaction it was dumbfoundingly simple. more...