Comment Re:machine learning is optimization (Score 1) 93
I'm not sure what acceptable support is, which is one of the reasons I'd like to hear whether you have any actual foundation for your argument.
There are a few learning strategies that animals, including humans, have been observed to use. One is mimicry, which has been demonstrated in primates (just recently for the first time by macaques in the wild), where one animal watches another perform a task then imitates it. Another is reinforcement learning, where an animal becomes more likely to demonstrate a given behaviour due to a positive outcome, or less likely due to a negative one. The general theme is learning through repetition and some form of positive and negative feedback.
Both of those learning strategies have been demonstrated by programs.
You seem to be implying that humans somehow learn differently than programs because the program is "programmed" and we're not. Do you have anything to support that assertion, besides "it's blatantly obvious to anyone with technical experience?" There's fairly good evidence that we've been "programmed" very effectively, and quite beyond what most of us would like to believe, by evolution.