The purpose I mean is, to shew what reason we have for believing that there are in the constitution of things fixt laws according to which things happen, and that, therefore, the frame of the world must be the effect of the wisdom and power of an intelligent cause; and thus to confirm the argument taken from final causes for the existence of the Deity. — R. Price, on the application of Bayes’ theorem, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1763.
  1. Readings

    1. Chapter 13. Describe:

      1. Conditional vs. Unconditional probabilities
      2. Probability Density Functions and the Joint Probability Density Function
      3. Bayes’ Theorem and Bayesian Inference

      You can safely skip Section 13.6.

    2. A Plan for Spam — Paul Graham wrote this influential article on Bayesian SPAM filters in 2002. Review the main article and give Graham’s answer to the following questions.

      1. What is the typical first approach to SPAM filtering?
      2. What is the advantage of his alternate approach to SPAM filtering?
      3. What language does Graham use to specify his filtering algorithm?

      Graham wrote a follow-up article in which he implements an updated algorithm. Note that while Graham was not the first to advocate for Bayesian spam filters, this article is generally credited with popularizing the approach and specifying an effective algorithm.

  2. Prerequisites and Prework — Be familiar with the Mathematical concepts listed in the following sections from the Google Crash Course on Machine Learning
    1. Algebra
    2. Linear Algebra
    3. Trigonometry
    4. Statistics
    5. Calculus