Prof Ard Louis: Physics and Information: From Evolution to Algorithms

This is a recording from last week's talk by Prof Ard Louis. Hope you enjoy!

Abstract:
I will explore some intriguing parallels between biological evolution and deep learning. The link between these fields is the coding theorem from algorithmic information theory (which really should be much more widely taught in physics!). It is a formalisation of the infinite monkey theorem, and predicts that for many systems, simple outputs should be much more common than complex ones. This picture helps explain why symmetric structures spontaneously emerge from the algorithmic nature of evolution. For deep learning, it predicts an inbuilt Occam's razor favouring simple solutions over more complex ones.

Check out Prof Louis here: https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/contact...