If I take the bus downtown today, what are the chances I’ll run into my friend (let’s call her Alice)? Suppose I’m on the bus for an hour. According to the local metro, there are approximately 31 people using a single bus per hour of operation. Assume that during the hour I’m on the bus…
Tag: statistics
Why do unlikely things happen?
I find that people often seem to have trouble understanding how an unlikely event can occur. I have heard people ascribe supernatural causes to such events, and I have also heard people express incredulity at the event occurring at all. This is one of many ways in which probability can be counterintuitive. We usually expect…
(A little bit of) the math of AI
Artificial intelligence is a vague term for computer applications that carry out some kind of decision making. In general, we’re more inclined to call something AI the more sophisticated and independent its decision making capabilities are. AI are usually designed for a single task or a small collection of related tasks. Many tasks we would…
thoughts on mind 