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When Achilles met the tortoise: Towards the problem of infinitesimals in machine learning

Authors:
When Achilles met the tortoise
Towards the problem of innitesimals in machine learning1
Clemens Apprich
            
       
            
             
          
              
             
          
            
           
           
               
              
           
          
            
  1
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8         
          
          
             
  Proof of Stakes: Technological Claims    
              
            
             
            
             
       
62 Beyond Quantity
          
           
           
             
          
          
          
          
          
           
              
              
    
         
          
          
            
          
          
          
            
            
           
       
           
      
            
          
            
          
          
            
          
         
             
              
         
Clemens Apprich: When Achilles met the tortoise 63
          
           
        
           
           
           
       
1. Forever converging
         
          
          
        growing 
          
          
         
       
            
            
        
            
            
            
            
      
          
            
            
          
           
             
     
               
        
64 Beyond Quantity
           
   
Figure 1: Machine Learning Crash Course (screenshot from Google Developers 2020).
            
          
               
         
            
            
              
 
           
   Machine Learners      
           
    
Clemens Apprich: When Achilles met the tortoise 65
            
        
Figure 2: Machine Learning Crash Course (screenshot from Google Developers 2020).
            
               
             
             
            
        learning rate 
             
            
              
          
          

66 Beyond Quantity
               
 
            
            
           
          
       
Figure 3: Machine Learning Crash Course (screenshot from Google Developers 2020).
          
            
              
           
 very small         
          
          
             
 
Clemens Apprich: When Achilles met the tortoise 67
            
            
          
             
          
          
         
          
               
   biologize       naturalize  
normalize          
           
             
        
           
           
            
          
           
             
    see           
              
    
            
             
              
           
             
 good            
right     
         
            
             
    
68 Beyond Quantity
2. Never being
           
    identity politics         
          
            
         natural 
          
           
          
          

                
        
    Discriminating Data     
       
            
           
            
  
   ground truth       
            
         
             
          
           
    optimize     
           
           
           
    overrides       
            
           
       
Beyond Quantity         
             
Clemens Apprich: When Achilles met the tortoise 69
            
           
             
          
        
          
          
     
             
         
         
          
         
           
          
            
             generalize
          
             
            
        
            
 
            
    along with      
         
  
           
       regular, discrete framework 
         
           
         
             
  
70 Beyond Quantity
          

3. The incomputable
         
        
      
       
            
          
  
           
         
           
         
    
         
          
           
           
           
        
     services    
       
             
       

         
            
          
        
              
      
Clemens Apprich: When Achilles met the tortoise 71
       
           
           
          
         
          
          
          
          
        
        
            
           
           
           
      
        
        
        
          
    
            
    and      
         
            
         
          
           
              
            
     
             
           
          
 
72 Beyond Quantity
           
       
          
          
         
computational thought      
           
             
            
 
              
           
           
                
              
          
              
        
 
List of references
          
       
       
     

          
      
           
     

            
             
Clemens Apprich: When Achilles met the tortoise 73
       
        
     
        
  
        
          
       
         
     
         
          
        
        
      

         
  
        
   
        
   

           
    
          
 

          
     
          
  
          
      
      
           
    
74 Beyond Quantity
         
    

       
     
        
      
     
         
      
       
     
      
        
           
   
         
        
       
  
      
      

          
       
    
         
       
   
         
    
    
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Chapter
Nicht weniger als von einer Revolution ist gegenwärtig die Rede. Neuere Verfahren der Künstlichen Intelligenz greifen in sämtliche Bereiche des sozialen und kulturellen Lebens ein: Maschinen lernen Bilder und Sprache zu erkennen, beherrschen die autonome Steuerung von Fahrzeugen ebenso wie Finanzinvestments und medizinische Diagnostik. Im digitalen Wandel ist Lernen damit kein Privileg des Menschen mehr. Vielmehr verschieben sich mit maschinellen Lernverfahren die Relationen zwischen Erkenntnismöglichkeiten, technischen Umwelten und humanen Akteuren. Dieser Band vermittelt erstmals für den deutschsprachigen Raum einen Überblick über die medialen, infrastrukturellen und historischen Voraussetzungen des maschinellen Lernens.
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MACHINE LEARNING SYSTEMS automatically learn programs from data. This is often a very attractive alternative to manually constructing them, and in the last decade the use of machine learning has spread rapidly throughout computer science and beyond. Machine learning is used in Web search, spam filters, recommender systems, ad placement, credit scoring, fraud detection, stock trading, drug design, and many other applications. A recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute asserts that machine learning (a.k.a. data mining or predictive analytics) will be the driver of the next big wave of innovation. 15 Several fine textbooks are available to interested practitioners and researchers (for example, Mitchell 16 and Witten et al. 24). However, much of the "folk knowledge" that is needed to successfully develop machine learning applications is not readily available in them. As a result, many machine learning projects take much longer than necessary or wind up producing less-than-ideal results. Yet much of this folk knowledge is fairly easy to communicate. This is the purpose of this article.
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Marketing and web analytic companies have implemented sophisticated algorithms to observe, analyze, and identify users through large surveillance networks online. These computer algorithms have the capacity to infer categories of identity upon users based largely on their web-surfing habits. In this article I will first discuss the conceptual and theoretical work around code, outlining its use in an analysis of online categorization practices. The article will then approach the function of code at the level of the category, arguing that an analysis of coded computer algorithms enables a supplement to Foucauldian thinking around biopolitics and biopower, of what I call soft biopower and soft biopolitics. These new conceptual devices allow us to better understand the workings of biopower at the level of the category, of using computer code, statistics and surveillance to construct categories within populations according to users’ surveilled internet history. Finally, the article will think through the nuanced ways that algorithmic inference works as a mode of control, of processes of identification that structure and regulate our lives online within the context of online marketing and algorithmic categorization.
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Google Developers (2020): "Machine Learning Crash Course.", last modified September 26, 2022 (https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/cr ash-course/descending-into-ml/training-and-loss).
Quick Guide to Gradient Descent and Its Variants
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Kansal, Sahdev (2020): "Quick Guide to Gradient Descent and Its Variants.", August 18, 2020 (https://towardsdatascience.com/quick-guide-to-gradien t-descent-and-its-variants-97a7afb33add).
Introduction to Machine Learning Crash Course
  • Peter Norvig
Norvig, Peter (2020): "Introduction to Machine Learning Crash Course.", last modified September 27, 2022 (https://developers.google.com/machine-le arning/crash-course/ml-intro).
Instrumental Reason, Algorithmic Capitalism, and the Incomputable
  • Luciana Parisi
Parisi, Luciana (2015): "Instrumental Reason, Algorithmic Capitalism, and the Incomputable." In: Matteo Pasquinelli (ed.), Augmented Intelligence Traumas, Lüneburg: meson press, pp. 125-137.
The Roles of Mutation, Inbreeding, Crossbreeding and Selection in Evolution
  • Sewall Wright
Wright, Sewall (1932): "The Roles of Mutation, Inbreeding, Crossbreeding and Selection in Evolution." In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics 1, pp. 356-366.