[matt4077]

The article seems pretty upfront about the fact that we are nowhere near a solid theory. One of many quotes to that effect: “ […] beginning to build the rudiments of a theory of neural networks.”

The main point seems to be why such a theory is highly desirable. To that end, it does a far better job than the somehat tired Feynman aphorism about good theories “giving us more than we give them”. Namely that the current state of the art of “intuition” and vast trial-and-error runs being somewhat embarrassing for a field so closely related to math and statistics.