Machine Learning, 2nd Edition

Chapter 3

Neurons, Neural Networks, and Linear Discriminants

We’ve spent enough time with the concepts of machine learning, now it is time to actually see it in practice. To start the process, we will return to our demonstration that learning is possible, which is the squishy thing that your skull protects.

3.1 The Brain and The Neuron

In animals, learning occurs within the brain. If we can understand how the brain works, then there might be things in there for us to copy and use for our machine learning systems. While the brain is an impressively powerful and complicated system, the basic building blocks that it is made up of are fairly simple and easy to understand. We’ll look at them shortly, but it’s worth noting that in computational terms ...