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by HardikVala 508 days ago
Ya, the phrase "first principles" is vague...I meant starting from an axiomatic and actionable definition of AI and learning from there. The first chapter of AIMA does a swell job of enumerating different definitions of and then explicitly declaring which one is used and the foundational premises for the concepts and methods to follow. And it doesn't define AI then jump to neural networks, it gradually layers more atomic concepts, like agents (which I know, have been bastardized) and environments, until it gets to machine learning.

> The other big question is why you want to learn it.

Good question. I'm just looking for a wider context to understand contemporary AI. I don't know if this serves any practical purpose but I'm someone who likes to understand the "why" behind everything and starting from "first principles" helps uncover that.

1 comments

By "first principles" do you mean something long "learn from the ground up" or " from basic building blocks"?

I like learning things starting from small, atomic this, then building up and learning higher layers of abstraction and functionality later. I tend to find hands on totals too "top down" in the sense that they start with all the told in place and then give you a cursory look into what's actually happening.

Personally I feel like most things in the world aren't really that complicated when you understand the building blocks. There are a few core ideas and then a bunch of layers on top to organize and utilize those ideas for different applications. So if I have an interest in something I want to learn from the ground up.

Exactly. Nailed it.