Being Bayesian

This episode explores the root concept of what it is to be Bayesian: describing knowledge of a system probabilistically, having an appropriate prior probability, know how to weigh new evidence, and following Bayes's rule to compute the revised distribution. We present this concept in a few different contexts but primarily focus on how our bird Yoshi sends signals about her food preferences. Like many animals, Yoshi is a complex creature whose preferences cannot easily be summarized by a straightforward utility function the way they might in a textbook reinforcement learning problem.

Guest

Yoshi: Yoshi is the Data Skeptic podcast's parrot/bird personality who has appeared in the show's lighter mini-episode material rather than an academic or industry guest profile.