Författarbild

David B. Fogel

Författare till How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics

11 verk 382 medlemmar 1 recension

Om författaren

David B. Fogel is the CEO of Natural Selection, Inc.

Inkluderar namnet: D.B Fogel

Verk av David B. Fogel

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As an armchair scientist, I am frequently frustrated by books written for novices (which I’m not) and also books written for experts (which I’m not either).

The former claim accessibility which usually means taking out all technical information, math, etc. The results is anecdotal, “gee-whizz” reporting that is ultimately without any value beyond entertainment.

The latter try to tempt in a large audience by getting “Introduction to …” into the title. They then proceed to rapidly summarise the foundations in twenty insultingly basic pages before shifting to advanced mathematics and a vocabulary/jargon designed only for their inner circle.

Where, you ask, are the books for armchair scientists? Check out my bookshelf for a few, but read on first …

Blondie 24: Playing at the Edge of AI is science as it should be written. It will be genuinely of interest to novice and expert alike (and especially the armchair scientist!). This is a tall claim, made by many books but deserved by few.

The novice will enjoy it because it is engaging and perfectly accessible. David Fogel takes his time setting the scene for the experiment to follow by addressing all key concepts needed to prepare the lay reader. He does it without recourse to jargon and with a literate and witty style. I had already some notions of the subject but felt no desire to skip forward to the “advanced” stuff. I’m glad I didn’t, because his exploration of the background leads logically and inexorably to the questions his experiment poses. I say logically and inexorably, but he seems to be the first to be inspired to answer these questions and the reader experiences the thrill of spotting a scientific avenue worth exploring.

There’s plenty here too for the armchair scientist and the expert. For the former, the investigation is a perfect example of science whose solution is accessible from an armchair. For the latter, it’ s original science, and David Fogel is generous enough to set down all his assumptions, his approach and even criticisms which can be levelled at it, to make it possible to replicate his work and advance it in new directions.

Later postings to this blog will challenge the work described in the book but do not imagine that criticism and admiration cannot share the same platform. This book inspired me with its audacious objective, it entertained me with its engaging style and it challenged me to spend months investigating and testing its ideas.

What more could I ask from any book?
… (mer)
½
 
Flaggad
tchelyzt | Dec 6, 2006 |

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Jayshree Sarma Contributor
Samir W. Mahfoud Contributor
John Grefenstette Contributor
David B. Angeline Contributor
Günter Randolph Contributor
Raymond C. Paton Contributor
Kenneth de Jong Contributor
Darrell Whitley Contributor
Lashon B. Booker Contributor
Wolfgang Banzhaf Contributor
Larry J. Eshelman Contributor
Tobias Blickle Contributor
Kalyanmoy Deb Contributor
Robert E. Smith Contributor
Hans-Paul Schwefel Contributor
David Beasley Contributor
Martin Schütz Contributor

Statistik

Verk
11
Medlemmar
382
Popularitet
#63,245
Betyg
½ 3.7
Recensioner
1
ISBN
29
Språk
1

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