Book tour
Click through for event details. I’ve included a few private events at organizations where it’s possible some readers work. The Tech Museum (Bay Area) November 1 Harvard Book Store / Cambridge Forum...
View ArticleIf correlation doesn’t imply causation, then what does?
That’s the question I address (very partially) in a new post on my data-driven intelligence blog. The post reviews some of the recent work on causal inference done by people such as Judea Pearl. In...
View ArticleOn Elsevier
Elsevier is the world’s largest and most profitable scientific publisher, making a profit of 1.1 billion dollars on revenue of 3.2 billion dollars in 2009. Elsevier have also been involved in many...
View ArticleHow you can help the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) become law
As many of you no doubt know, the Federal Research Public Access Act; (FRPAA, pronounced fur-pa) was introduced into the US Congress a few days past.  It’s a terrific bill, which, if it passes,...
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The artist and the machine
In September of 2012, a team of scientists released a photograph showing the most distant parts of the Universe ever seen by any human being. They obtained the photograph by pointing the Hubble Space...
View ArticleNeural Networks and Deep Learning: first chapter goes live
I am delighted to announce that the first chapter of my book “Neural Networks and Deep Learning” is now freely available online here. The chapter explains the basic ideas behind neural networks,...
View ArticleReinventing Explanation
My new essay on the use of digital media to explain scientific ideas is here.
View ArticleHow the backpropagation algorithm works
Chapter 2 of my free online book about “Neural Networks and Deep Learning” is now available. The chapter is an in-depth explanation of the backpropagation algorithm. Backpropagation is the workhorse of...
View ArticleWhere will the key ideas shaping the future of scientific publishing come from?
Stefan Janusz from the Royal Society asked me to comment briefly on where I’d look for new ideas about the future of scientific publishing. Here’s my response, crossposted to the Royal Society’s blog...
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Is there a tension between creativity and accuracy?
On Twitter, I’ve been chatting with my friend Julia Galef about tensions between thinking creatively and thinking in a way that reduces error. Of course, all other things being equal, I’m in favour of...
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