[wobbleblob]

> (Similarly, I would not be surprised if a face recognition NN worked better on Europeans rather than Chinese, for the prima facie reason that they have more variable facial features and other aspects like multiple hair colors other than black.)

You might be surprised to learn that to Chinese people, westerners all look more or less the same. To Africans, white people look more or less the same. Our biological hardware is great at distinguishing minute differences in things (especially people) we are very familiar with, while we automatically start generalizing about things we are less familiar with.

For comparison: a metal fan may be able to distinguish a dozen distinctly different styles of Norwegian Black Metal, while to outsiders it's all loud white noise made by people dressed like undead clowns.

[coryfklein]

> You might be surprised to learn that to Chinese people, westerners all look more or less the same.

Yes, I would definitely be surprised if Chinese people thought a pale-skinned Irish woman with shocking red hair looked more or less the same as an olive skinned mediterranean brunette.

The fact of the matter is, the greatly reduced range of hair and skin color in the Chinese is a legitimate reason to think they look more "the same" than a European/Westerner. There is undisputably greater diversity in appearance in Europe than China.

[radarsat1]

I encourage you to take a look at a map of skin colour diversity and decide whether Chine or Europe has more variety: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color#/media/File:U...

North to south I think it's pretty clear that skin colour goes from light to much darker than Europe.

[coryfklein]

The borders of China aren't exactly clear in the image you posted, but here's what I'm seeing:

Europe ranges from 1-14

"Western" ranges from 1-23

China ranges from 12-17

Am I interpreting the image incorrectly? Doesn't it confirm my assertion that China has a smaller range of skin tone?

Edit: The definition of "Western" appears to be very vague, but for reference I referenced at the rough vague shape of the United States to determine the 1-23 figure.

[radarsat1]

The way I read it almost all of Europe is in the 1-12 range with the exception of Spain. China is 12 to 17 or 12 to 20 depending on how you read the borders. I would eliminate North America from consideration unless we are talking about aboriginals, since it's a melting pot. (That is to say, it goes without saying that it has more variety.)

But my point is only to say that your statement of "greatly reduced range of .. skin color" is a rather exaggerated statement. (For hair color I suppose you might be right ;)

Hard to say due to the lack of precision in the map in the lighter range, but if you think about how incredibly large China is, it stands to reason that your statement might be missing the mark a bit. Especially if you consider other Asian countries. (Which maybe you should, if comparing with "Europe" or "North America"..)

[wobbleblob]

You don't get it. The importance you place on hair and skin color in telling people apart isn't following a set of objective, mathematical criteria, it's a set of priorities based on what you're used to. It is entirely possible someone from a different background thinks of hair- and skin color as irrelevant details, much like you would with a brown and white cow vs a black and white one.

Someone else posted this: http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=3285