Re:Chomsky and the Two Cultures of Statistical Learning
by theptip on Saturday November 07, 2026 @11:54PM
(#50410512)
The key point is quite simple: You can write any retroactive explanation you want. But only some stories are _predictive_. And you can weigh models by how good their predictions are; which was my original point above.
You can write many imagined stories, but one of them will match observed reality. It won't be about an airborne male model who wears his underpants on the outside. But you can write a story that describes reality. And you can describe observable phenomena with statistics. Of course, you can describe plenty of pseudoscientific drivel with statistics too.