by simply making the bias random on the second input for a two bit binary input during activation calculation, it's possible to train a neural net to calculate the XOR function in one layer.

I know for a fact. I just did it.

But why? There is no way it is as efficient as gates.

@Demolishun The general rule of thumb is XOR gates on NNs can't be trained with less then two layers.

I don't know how this was really missed.

Took 37 epochs, which I'm sure I could get down to like five or six if not for my nieve implementation.

I read the first 5 words and I know it‘s @Wisecrack 😂

@Lensflare I really am that predictable aren't I.

I did train XOR with only one hidden layer, albeit with a nonstandard bias calculation.

Is it that surprising?

@jestdotty actually I think there may be a novel modification of vanilla NNs that gradually adjust weights in a way that they become isomorphic to embeddings of inputs.

Likewise for node biases.

It's plausible, but if it works, with a little tweaking, and the right pruning algorithm, you can get the efficiency equivalents of quantization damn near free, and make a model with only n= 1..2 hidden layers as efficient as a model with +m (for some m up to a limit) hidden layers.

I haven't specified training regime because I'm trying multiple new methods that don't rely on backprop at all.

@jestdotty a separate small project I'm working on does that, fusing graph networks, symbolic reasoning, and neural nets (for some definition of 'neural net').

Haven't had the time to do any deep work on that other than last night, and instead I decided to start this miniproject posted in this thread last night.

@Wisecrack How do you have the time? :(

@Root I work a minimum wage job for 2-6 months, they hire on a crack head or absolute shithead who ruins everything, I leave, go broke without a job for two weeks or so, and then find another.

In between I study and try not to end up homeless.

Don't be remotely envious. Any given day I could end up homeless living in a wooded patch next to a highway somewhere. Not im-a-programmer-that-got-laid-off-from-silicon-valley-with-a-mortgage-and-only-twenty-thousand-in-savings-what-is-my-career-anyway financial instability, more like I-could-go-live-out-of-my-car-until-the-state-took-it-for-non-payment-of-taxes-and-decide-to-go-become-a-guerilla-from-my-dissatisfaction-with-society financial instability.

Listen, none of us have a future, the future isn't real. You got to believe and accept that if you're in any sort of bad place just so you can survive and function in the present at all.

@Root and to put it plainly, I've moved past expecting or even wanting a better future. I understand thats not going to happen now.

I've accepted, as many trends I've seen coming way before anyone, as many opportunities that passed me by because I wasn't in the right head space at the time, or didn't believe in the correctness of my own foresight, or didn't have the resources to seize them...as many times as I've had defeat snatched from the jaws of victory and a better life, I've accepted my lot in life, to be leader of the losers club, to go to oblivion either in absolute obscurity or absolute infamy.

I was born alone, with nothing, and regardless of whatever success I manage to steal and pry from the jaws of fate and the world, it'll be the same when I go out of it, be it by accident, circumstance, or my own choosing.

And the truth is, that is true for everyone.

No one can change it, no one can fix it.

And regardless of the circumstances, I'll always have this passion for research, even if I'm no standout or never had the opportunity to go to a university to get credentialed.

You gotta play the cards you're dealt.

I'll keep doing what I always do, helping absolute fucking strangers like the dumbass I am, taking risks on anyone who needs it, putting myself in danger continuously for others to assist those in need, and masking every bit of myself in real life because no matter the crisis every situation requires someone willing to step up and be a fixed point for others, a cool head. And I'll do these things no matter what, until whoever is beneath the mask slowly disappears entirely, never noticed but doing the work anyway, never recognized but sweating it out, never asking for others gratitude, or a hand out.

That is what the world today requires.

I guess I just kinda dumped this on you. My bad.

@Wisecrack "I've moved past expecting or even wanting a better future." Have come to realize the world was so fucked when I was born I am not sure it can be better. That was 1975. Sure tech has changed, but evil people are fucking regular people and it has only gotten worse.

@Wisecrack If I could, I’d hire you. Crazy geniuses always make the best company, or at least the most interesting. :)

@Root flattered. That makes two of us.