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Bayesian stats book banned in China

stat.columbia.edu

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Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#61

Post by jhpriestley »

raganwald wrote: post #28
jdminhbg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, there are people crazy enough that they would ban books on evolution, just are there are undoubtedly people who are crazy enough to ban books on creationism. Those are probably not even near the top of the list of crazy things people wish they could do. The reason that it is the case that "things are this crazy in China" is that there is a difference between the existence of people who would probably enjoy impl…

Oh, we're in violent agreement. The thing about the USA and Canada is that we're constitutional democracies. That doesn't mean that as people we're any less crazy than places with a different system, but our constitutions act as a brake slowing down implementation of crazy policies and providing a kind of "undo" when things go wrong. As we saw in the FLQ Crisis and again during the G20 summit, Canadians can lock thou…

Every nation sees their own atrocities as "aberrations", while the atrocities perpetrated by other nations are seen as deeply revealing.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#62

Post by alexqgb »

lightoverhead wrote: post #26

Hi Guys, I am from China, and of course the Bayesian is taught in China. Only in the culture revolution time, this crazy thing may happen; but it's long time ago when Mao was alive. Now China is a modern society; of course, the Bayesian theory is taught in schools; otherwise how could they send the spaceship to the outer space and have the fastest super computer in the world so far. you are smart hackers, not a bunch…

If you're thinking about Wikileaks, think about how the official reaction is being widely regarded as a very overbearing, and very un-American thing, not as a typical expression of well-established values.

Indeed, for a summary of well-established American values, see the collection defined by the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate story, and more recently, the NYT's Warrantless Wiretapping story. Together, they put the Administration on the wrong side of our national character, and to a very embarrassing degree.

So I agree with you; the Wikileaks response doesn't just look bad, it is bad. But you join others on the more dubious side of the issue when you cite errors like this as excuses or justifications for vastly more abusive practices elsewhere, rather than violations of civil liberty that shouldn't be tolerated by self-respecting people anywhere.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#63

Post by dantkz »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #57
mayank wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Launching a spaceship almost certainly uses Bayesian methods for tracking (e.g., Kalman or particle filters for position tracking), but I seriously doubt that building a supercomputer requires a dedicated use of Bayesian statistics. On a different note, perhaps you could be slightly less condescending in your future posts.

Is a Kalman filter considered a type of Bayesian statistics? It doesn't seem that way to me, but I'm not so hot at higher math. In any case, many years ago, I worked on a radar system for a fighter plane. Its air-to-ground radar (at the very least; this was the part I was involved in) did indeed use a Kalman filter.

Yes, you can describe tracking and Kalman filter using bayesian statistics. Although, my prof said that originally it was not developed that way, but it is easier to describe it using normal distributions as priors and likelihoods of the position of the object being tracked.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#64

Post by guelo »

lightoverhead wrote: post #26

Hi Guys, I am from China, and of course the Bayesian is taught in China. Only in the culture revolution time, this crazy thing may happen; but it's long time ago when Mao was alive. Now China is a modern society; of course, the Bayesian theory is taught in schools; otherwise how could they send the spaceship to the outer space and have the fastest super computer in the world so far. you are smart hackers, not a bunch…

You should have noticed in the WikiLeaks case that there are a lot of Americans criticizing our government. It sounds like you are proud of China, but the truly patriotic thing to do is to criticize your government when it does wrong so that it can improve.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#65

Post by eru »

dantkz wrote: post #63
CWuestefeld wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is a Kalman filter considered a type of Bayesian statistics? It doesn't seem that way to me, but I'm not so hot at higher math. In any case, many years ago, I worked on a radar system for a fighter plane. Its air-to-ground radar (at the very least; this was the part I was involved in) did indeed use a Kalman filter.

Yes, you can describe tracking and Kalman filter using bayesian statistics. Although, my prof said that originally it was not developed that way, but it is easier to describe it using normal distributions as priors and likelihoods of the position of the object being tracked.

And I guess thanks to those crazy generalizing mathematicians, nowadays you can use something like Kalman filtering with distribution other than normal ones.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#66

Post by eru »

yters wrote: post #54
lightoverhead wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, it's not immediate application. But Bayesian is one of the most important or fundamental knowledge to develop these cutting-edge technologies.

How? I'm experienced with spacecraft design and the like, and have never heard of Bayesian probability theory being used. If it was fundamental I'd expect some mention, somewhere.

If you look hard enough, you can find it in e.g. (linear) regressions and Kalman filtering.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#67

Post by theFco »

kia wrote: post #42
theFco wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's crazy. As someone already said the objections are probably related to the examples mentioned on the book (election results and other "controversial" subjects). Crazy is superficial, this is, in my opinion, sad but not crazy or stupid.

Maybe it was a wrong word. I have to see the book to make conclusions, but I doubt that a book on Bayesian statistics may contain something highly controversial that needs to be banned.

And I concur! I just don't think it has to be dismissed as crazy, it's far worse.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#68

Post by xfs »

lightoverhead wrote: post #44
mayank wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understandable, but for future reference to anyone who might be interested, telling strangers to "use their brains" is generally not appreciated in many cultures, since it implies that they weren't.

points taken. I updated my original post. sorry for that condescending tone.

I guess you meant "to reason" but wrote it as "to move(use) brain"?

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#69

Post by CWuestefeld »

keyist wrote: post #49
raganwald wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, we're in violent agreement. The thing about the USA and Canada is that we're constitutional democracies. That doesn't mean that as people we're any less crazy than places with a different system, but our constitutions act as a brake slowing down implementation of crazy policies and providing a kind of "undo" when things go wrong. As we saw in the FLQ Crisis and again during the G20 summit, Canadians can lock thou…

"But our system at least makes these things aberrations and provides dissenters a way to rectify the problems in the courts." What a lot of people don't get when they try to tu quoque US/Canada/etc on particular events is that their protection of essential liberties is defense in depth. If a book was banned: - due process means that this incident can be taken to court - freedom of press means the mass media can infor…

Trial by jury means that the citizens can nullify unjust laws.

And in the most extreme, the freedom to keep and bear arms means that we've got the ability to boot out an unjust government.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#70

Post by mayank »

eru wrote: post #65
dantkz wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you can describe tracking and Kalman filter using bayesian statistics. Although, my prof said that originally it was not developed that way, but it is easier to describe it using normal distributions as priors and likelihoods of the position of the object being tracked.

And I guess thanks to those crazy generalizing mathematicians, nowadays you can use something like Kalman filtering with distribution other than normal ones.

Check out particle filters if you want crazy mathematicians. Fun stuff.
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