11,037 research outputs found
Algorithmic Randomness as Foundation of Inductive Reasoning and Artificial Intelligence
This article is a brief personal account of the past, present, and future of
algorithmic randomness, emphasizing its role in inductive inference and
artificial intelligence. It is written for a general audience interested in
science and philosophy. Intuitively, randomness is a lack of order or
predictability. If randomness is the opposite of determinism, then algorithmic
randomness is the opposite of computability. Besides many other things, these
concepts have been used to quantify Ockham's razor, solve the induction
problem, and define intelligence.Comment: 9 LaTeX page
Algorithmic complexity for psychology: A user-friendly implementation of the coding theorem method
Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity has long been believed to be impossible to
approximate when it comes to short sequences (e.g. of length 5-50). However,
with the newly developed \emph{coding theorem method} the complexity of strings
of length 2-11 can now be numerically estimated. We present the theoretical
basis of algorithmic complexity for short strings (ACSS) and describe an
R-package providing functions based on ACSS that will cover psychologists'
needs and improve upon previous methods in three ways: (1) ACSS is now
available not only for binary strings, but for strings based on up to 9
different symbols, (2) ACSS no longer requires time-consuming computing, and
(3) a new approach based on ACSS gives access to an estimation of the
complexity of strings of any length. Finally, three illustrative examples show
how these tools can be applied to psychology.Comment: to appear in "Behavioral Research Methods", 14 pages in journal
format, R package at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/acss/index.htm
Algorithmic Complexity for Short Binary Strings Applied to Psychology: A Primer
Since human randomness production has been studied and widely used to assess
executive functions (especially inhibition), many measures have been suggested
to assess the degree to which a sequence is random-like. However, each of them
focuses on one feature of randomness, leading authors to have to use multiple
measures. Here we describe and advocate for the use of the accepted universal
measure for randomness based on algorithmic complexity, by means of a novel
previously presented technique using the the definition of algorithmic
probability. A re-analysis of the classical Radio Zenith data in the light of
the proposed measure and methodology is provided as a study case of an
application.Comment: To appear in Behavior Research Method
High-Performance Distributed ML at Scale through Parameter Server Consistency Models
As Machine Learning (ML) applications increase in data size and model
complexity, practitioners turn to distributed clusters to satisfy the increased
computational and memory demands. Unfortunately, effective use of clusters for
ML requires considerable expertise in writing distributed code, while
highly-abstracted frameworks like Hadoop have not, in practice, approached the
performance seen in specialized ML implementations. The recent Parameter Server
(PS) paradigm is a middle ground between these extremes, allowing easy
conversion of single-machine parallel ML applications into distributed ones,
while maintaining high throughput through relaxed "consistency models" that
allow inconsistent parameter reads. However, due to insufficient theoretical
study, it is not clear which of these consistency models can really ensure
correct ML algorithm output; at the same time, there remain many
theoretically-motivated but undiscovered opportunities to maximize
computational throughput. Motivated by this challenge, we study both the
theoretical guarantees and empirical behavior of iterative-convergent ML
algorithms in existing PS consistency models. We then use the gleaned insights
to improve a consistency model using an "eager" PS communication mechanism, and
implement it as a new PS system that enables ML algorithms to reach their
solution more quickly.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure
Estimating the Algorithmic Complexity of Stock Markets
Randomness and regularities in Finance are usually treated in probabilistic
terms. In this paper, we develop a completely different approach in using a
non-probabilistic framework based on the algorithmic information theory
initially developed by Kolmogorov (1965). We present some elements of this
theory and show why it is particularly relevant to Finance, and potentially to
other sub-fields of Economics as well. We develop a generic method to estimate
the Kolmogorov complexity of numeric series. This approach is based on an
iterative "regularity erasing procedure" implemented to use lossless
compression algorithms on financial data. Examples are provided with both
simulated and real-world financial time series. The contributions of this
article are twofold. The first one is methodological : we show that some
structural regularities, invisible with classical statistical tests, can be
detected by this algorithmic method. The second one consists in illustrations
on the daily Dow-Jones Index suggesting that beyond several well-known
regularities, hidden structure may in this index remain to be identified
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