Technology
On the theory of dynamic programming
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Mechanical Chess Player
I don't say "beat" its designer; I say Let us assume that the machine cannot analyze the position right out and that it must make judgments. The problem, then, becomes that the machine must form its own criteria for judgment, and, if it is to beat its designer, it must form better judgments than the designer can put into it. Can we build such a machine? The problem that faces the designer is the same as that of the father who is not a good chess player and who wants his son to become world champion. Obviously, he must be very careful about what he teaches the boy.
Presentation of a Maze-Solving Machine
The maze can be changed _ any desired mantler by rearranging the partitions between the twen --:five squares. In the maze there is a sensing finger, which can feel the -.:titions of the maze as it comes against them. This finger is moved .- The goal is mounted on a pin which can be slipped into a jack _ any of the twenty-five squares. Thus you can change the problem ..' way you choose, within the limits of the 5 x 5 maze.
Investigations on Synaptic Transmission
' This work was done in collaboration with Drs. But it is attenuated because the electrode computes a weighted average over a volume of a function whose own average is zero. To this external medium, the nerve appears to produce, absorb, then produce current when a spike passes; from this probe's standpoint of view, the impulse is a source, followed by sink, followed by source. Their algebraic sum in time is zero, unless the impulse stops either at the electrode or short of it. In the former case, the preceding source is averaged with the initial part of the sink, but the stationary decaying sink is recorded as a large negative potential with respect to a remote electrode.
Prediction and Entropy of Printed English
The entropy is a statistical parameter which measures, in a certain sense, how much information is produced on the average for each letter of a text in the language. If the language is translated into binary digits (0 or 1) in the most efficient way, the entropy // is the average number of binary digits required per letter of the original language. The redundancy, on the other hand, measures the amount of constraint imposed on a text in the language due to its statistical structure, e.g., in English the high frequency of the letter £, the strong tendency of H to follow T or of V to follow Q. It was estimated that when statistical effects extending over not more than eight letters are considered the entropy is roughly 2.3 bits per letter, the redundancy about 50 per cent. Since then a new method has been found for estimating these quantities, which is more sensitive and takes account of long range statistics, influences extending over phrases, sentences, etc.