zlacker

> One is "top down": teach the system some high level principles that correspond to known general concepts, and the other is "bottom up": determine the structure from the data itself and use that to generate general concepts.

This is the same pattern explaining why bottom-up economic systems, i.e. lassaire faire free markets, flawed as they are, work better than top-down systems like central planning.

>>jyscao+(OP)
They don't work for a more specific reason than that; a central planning system that was "bottom up" (asking everyone what they want rather than dictating it) couldn't work either, because people aren't capable of expressing their preferences in a way you can calculate.

How much iron does a steel mill need this year? Well, that depends on how many customers they'll get, which depends on what price they sell steel at.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_calculation_problem