Slashdot was huge influence on my life. I first heard about it as a freshman at the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 1997, when one of the core GIMP hackers told us about it. Thanks for all the education CmdrTaco.

For me, the koan evokes the realization that just as when I close my eyes the room does not become empty, when I randomly wire a neural network it does not become free of preconceptions: it just has random preconceptions.

That is, it is impossible to free a system of preconceptions. By making parameters random rather than hand-picked, I am simply trading one set of preconceptions for another.

Of course, if it is a true koan, it will probably evoke as many different thought-paths as it has readers. Hope the above helped, though.