The artist tweeted [^1]: "this way, i could accurately simulate what it would be like to talk to my childhood self, based on real data sources during that time period vs trying to imagine how my younger self was / how she would respond, and risk bias from projections from my current self"
The Minsky story is a comment on the ridiculousness of the idea that you can train a model on your journal to "avoid bias" and "accurately simulate" what you were like as a child.
well I would suppose it meant that if you close your eyes so that the room is empty you have a misconception as to the state of reality, there is not actually a connection to the room being empty and your eyes being closed it just seems like there is to you.
thus there is not actually a connection between the neural net being randomly wired and it not having any preconceptions as to how to play, it just seems like that to Sussman.
I have never found these zen koan things very interesting though. Also I think there is much more likely a connection between a neural net being randomly wired and not having preconceptions than closing of eyes emptying out rooms.
They're just jokes, not supposed to have much meaning beyond a superficial connection to zen stories. Any attempt to read into them will be frustrating.
The sound of one hand clapping is the powerful slap I give across the face to the absolutely vile product manager that added the new absurdly loud Android TV YouTube startup sound that cannot be disabled:
"Because they don't use their own products" I replied.
Minsky began scribbling in his notebook at a furious pace.
"What are you writing?" I asked of Minsky.
"Just another obituary for an undead product" replied Minsky.
At that moment, I became enlightened. I realized Gmail was undead, and YouTube was on its way to becoming a zombie too!
"So Google is purgatory?" I blurted out, flustered.
"As much as a slap is one hand clapping!" replied Minsky.
I instantly became enlightened and Ram Dass appeared, as if from the heavens. I knew what my mission now was. To ridicule Google on Hacker News in front of their employees so they reverse this beyond stupid decision some idiot in a position of power made. ;-)
/slap
goldenkey slaps YouTube PM around a bit with a large trout
Wiring a neural network randomly does not eliminate preconceptions, but rather you now have a random set of preconceptions... which is precisely equivalent to closing your eyes in hopes that the room will be empty (which obviously it won't be).
"What are you doing?", asked Minsky.
"I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe."
"Why is the net wired randomly?" inquired Minsky.
"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play."
At this, Minsky shut his eyes. Sussman asked his teacher, "Why do you close your eyes?"
"So that the room will be empty."
At that momment, Sussman was enlightened.