Gary Marcus

This is from the Amazon description of @GaryMarcus new book, though I'm guessing there's a high probability these are not precisely his words. Nonetheless, the same argument pops up in other places too.

yes. of course the point of writing the book is that argument is too subtle to capture in a jacket description or a tweet.

It is so subtle I've never quite grasped it. 'Endowing machines with common sense and deep understanding' in the obvious way was tried for 50 years (it's the obvious thing to try first) and didn't work. What's different about your proposal now? (ps. I'll read the book...)

Yes, please read the book. But also compare the argument you just made - “it’s already been tried, and failed” — to what might have been applied to deep learning in 2010.

I haven't read Gary's book yet, but I doubt he's advocating 'endowing machines with common sense' (his words) 'in the obvious way was tried for 50 years' (Felix's words)

I'm inclined to agree that a focus on 'common sense and deep understanding' is the right approach. But I suspect it can be done with deep learning and the right architecture

of course, a lot rests on what you mean by right architecture, and whether you include symbol-manipulation (which we argue is a key component) in that scope. you and i probably ultimately agree on the value of *hybrid* architecture.

I think we can agree that the brain has specialized components that work in concert to achieve human cognition. We can furthermore agree that each of these components is built of specialized neural networks. Hybrid architectures are a stepping stone towards more general kinds.