aaronson-oracle 0.1.0

A simple ngram-based predictor for a binary choice.
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    6 out of 10 items documented0 out of 5 items with examples
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  • Source code size: 15.75 kB This is the summed size of all the files inside the crates.io package for this release.
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  • m1guelpf

Aaronson's Oracle

In a class I taught at Berkeley, I did an experiment where I wrote a simple little program that would let people type either "f" or "d" and would predict which key they were going to push next. It’s actually very easy to write a program that will make the right prediction about 70% of the time. Most people don’t really know how to type randomly. They’ll have too many alternations and so on. There will be all sorts of patterns, so you just have to build some sort of probabilistic model. Even a very crude one will do well. I couldn’t even beat my own program, knowing exactly how it worked. I challenged people to try this and the program was getting between 70% and 80% prediction rates. Then, we found one student that the program predicted exactly 50% of the time. We asked him what his secret was and he responded that he "just used his free will."

~ Scott Aaronson, Quantum Computing Since Democritus

Usage

You can play around with the oracle by running cargo run --example cli. Alternatively, use the library to build your own.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more information.