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Algorithmic identification of probabilities is hard.

Authors :
Bienvenu, Laurent
Figueira, Santiago
Monin, Benoit
Shen, Alexander
Source :
Journal of Computer & System Sciences. Aug2018, Vol. 95, p98-108. 11p.
Publication Year :
2018

Abstract

Reading more and more bits from an infinite binary sequence that is random for a Bernoulli measure with parameter p , we can get better and better approximations of p using the strong law of large numbers. In this paper, we study a similar situation from the viewpoint of inductive inference. Assume that p is a computable real, and we have to eventually guess the program that computes p . We show that this cannot be done computably, and extend this result to more general computable distributions. We also provide a weak positive result showing that looking at a sequence X generated according to some computable probability measure, we can guess a sequence of algorithms that, starting from some point, compute a measure that makes X Martin-Löf random. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00220000
Volume :
95
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Journal of Computer & System Sciences
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
129153440
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcss.2018.01.002