Simple Algorithmic Principles of Discovery, Subjective Beauty, Selective Attention, Curiosity & Creativity

Interest & curiosity

Interestingness is the first derivative of the beauty :

… the extent to which data will improve the compressor (world model) for observer .

Curiosity is the drive to improve the compressor:

Interesting data is usually novel but needs to also be learnable, in other words: open-ended

Predictable/unsurprising data (e.g. black room) → no learning progress, not interesting
Unable to extract patterns from data (e.g. white noise) → unlearnable, not interesting
Data that improves your ability to model the world → learning progress, interesting

You seek out information that leads to (new) higher level concepts, connections etc., exploring parts of the space where you know that your world model is inaccurate.

self-modelling]] is necessary for curiosity. If the learning algorithm depends on the model network, the model network has to make a prediction about its own current prediction capabilities. The activations of the model network are (partly) interpreted as a statement about the current weights of the model network.

compression is just a proxy or part of interestingness (just like novelty)

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The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction. (Johnson, 1751)

Embracing curiosity eliminates the exploration-exploitation dilemma

Todo