The Connection Between Astrology And Your Tesla AutoDrive – Forbes

Preamble: Intermittently, I will be introducing some columns which introduce some seemingly outlandish concepts. The purpose is a bit of humor, but also to provoke some thought. Enjoy.

Zodiac signs inside of horoscope circle.

Historically, astrology has been a major component of the cultural life in many major civilizations. Significant events such as marriage, moving into a new home, or even travel were planned with astrology in mind. Even in modern times, astrological internet sites enjoy great success and the gurus of the art publish in major newspapers.

Of course, with the advent of scientific methods and formal education, astrology has rapidly lost favor in intellectual society. After all, what could possibly be the causal relationship between the movement of planets and whether someone will get a job promotion? As some have pointed out, even if there was a relationship, the configuration of the stars change, so how could the predictions of the past possibly be valid ?

Pure poppycock. Right? Perhaps. Lets take a deeper look.

Lets consider the central technology at the apex of current intellectual achievement : machine learning. Machine learning is the engine underlying important technologies such as autonomous vehicles including Teslas AutoDrive. What is machine learning at its core? One looks at massive amounts of data and trains a computational engine (ML engine). This ML engine is then used to make future predictions. Sometimes, the training is done in a constrained manner where one looks at particular items, and other times, the training is left unconstrained. Machine learning and the associated field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the forefront of computer science research. Indeed, as we have discussed in past articles, AI is considered to be the next big economic mega-driver in a vast number of markets. After looking at machine learning, an interesting thought comes to mind.

Was astrology really just machine learning done by humans?

Could the thought leaders from great civilizations have looked at large amounts of human behavioral data and used something very reasonable (planetary movements) to train the astrology engine? After all, what really is the difference between machine learning and astrology?

Marketing Chart Comparing Astrology and Machine Learning

Both astrology and machine learning seem to have a concept of training. In astrology, the astrological signs are used as points of interest, and seemingly arbitrary connections are made to individual human circumstances. Even without the understanding of causality, the correlations can be somewhat true. In machine learning, data correlations are discovered, and there is no requirement of causation. This thought process is central to the machine learning paradigm, and gives it much of its power. In fact, as the chart above shows, there are uncomfortable levels of parallels between astrology and machine learning.

What does this mean? Should we take machine learning a little less seriously? Certainly, some caution is warranted, but it appears to be clear that machine learning can provide utility.

So, what about astrology? Perhaps we should take it a bit more seriously .

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The Connection Between Astrology And Your Tesla AutoDrive - Forbes