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A comment on Generally capable agents emerge from open-ended play. Parent comment

Re:Generally capable agents emerge from open-ended play by nostrademons on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @12:52PM (#27974627)
Watching my 3-year-old, I suspect humans do behave this way, and without regards to pain or fatigue. He'll hit himself on the head with duplos or bang his head against the wall just to see what happens. The pain is just one more signal for reinforcement learning.

I recall a paper in a non-CS journal (psych or neuroscience) that posited that the optimal way to gain large quantities of information about an uncertain environment is to simply perturb the environment in random ways and see what happens. Young children will often do lots of seemingly stupid or random things (see the r/KidsAreFuckingStupid subreddit) with the trust that if it's actually a life-ending decision their parent will stop them.

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Re:Generally capable agents emerge from open-ended play by _carbyau_ on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @07:42PM (#27978909)
Have three year old and I would support your description for how kids grow in the early months and years.

Now though learning from stories and observation is a thing too. Unsure exactly when that started.

Of course, attention/awareness isn't great and playing with a balloon precludes caution around a fireplace... but it is understandable at this age.

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Re:Generally capable agents emerge from open-ended play by a9h74j on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @06:58PM (#27978633)
> I suspect humans do behave this way

Suddenly I recall one author of SICP saying that programming today is about poking at libraries.

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Re:Generally capable agents emerge from open-ended play by CPLX on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @10:12PM (#27979678)
This is certainly insightful. But I think a complete explanation would have to include the power of narrative as well. Somehow.

It seems obvious and intuitive that the human brain is in some way wired to recognize patterns in data and weave narratives around those patterns, and also that it’s possible to skip the data part and convey intelligence through narrative and metaphor.

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Re:Generally capable agents emerge from open-ended play by gryn on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @02:10PM (#27975594)
was that paper about the complexities of the exploration/exploitation trade-off in different environments ?
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Re:Generally capable agents emerge from open-ended play by chrisweekly on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @09:19PM (#27979422)
Your phrasing it this way reminds me of the excellent book Algorithms to Live By. Highly recommended!
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