Information, learning and falsification

Details Information, learning and falsification Information, learning and falsification

2011-10-17

arxiv.org/abs/1110.3592v2

Computer Science

Information Theory

Scientific paper

There are (at least) three approaches to quantifying information. The first, algorithmic information or Kolmogorov complexity, takes events as strings and, given a universal Turing machine, quantifies the information content of a string as the length of the shortest program producing it. The second, Shannon information, takes events as belonging to ensembles and quantifies the information resulting from observing the given event in terms of the number of alternate events that have been ruled out. The third, statistical learning theory, has introduced measures of capacity that control (in part) the expected risk of classifiers. These capacities quantify the expectations regarding future data that learning algorithms embed into classifiers. This note describes a new method of quantifying information, effective information, that links algorithmic information to Shannon information, and also links both to capacities arising in statistical learning theory. After introducing the measure, we show that it provides a non-universal analog of Kolmogorov complexity. We then apply it to derive basic capacities in statistical learning theory: empirical VC-entropy and empirical Rademacher complexity. A nice byproduct of our approach is an interpretation of the explanatory power of a learning algorithm in terms of the number of hypotheses it falsifies, counted in two different ways for the two capacities. We also discuss how effective information relates to information gain, Shannon and mutual information.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Information, learning and falsification does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Information, learning and falsification, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Information, learning and falsification will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-317372