Earth mover's distance joke: ML folks mock the claim that math defines intelligence
eigenhector · x · 2026-10-30
- A viral post argues math is seen as the peak of human intelligence only because it's utterly unlike what we evolved for — just as we invented earth-moving machines because we're bad at moving dirt, which are cool but not hugely significant to life.
- The quoted reply adds a technical irony: for practical optimal transport tasks, the ML community has largely moved away from earth mover's distance toward cheaper divergences — the 'earth mover' is being abandoned in ML too.
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