The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization · HackerPapers discussions

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization — HN submission

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 06:17:49 GMT

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization

1 point; 1 discussion reply on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization — HN submission

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 12:46:42 GMT

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization

3 points; 4 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization — mentioned by TastyDucks

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 01:17:32 GMT

For those who are interested in the concept of dreaming as a mechanism for preventing overfitting (insofar as such a term may be applied to biological processes), I myself first encountered the concept in this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.09560

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization — mentioned by crazydoggers

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 04:59:03 GMT

> There is substantial disagreement on the function of dreams. Some theories say it’s for strengthening weak memory associations, others say it’s for rehearsing dangerous situations. Some say they don’t have any function at all. My favorite theory on dreams is that they help maintain the brain’s ability to generalize, just like a neural network has to deal with overfitting. The idea being, that the dream is supplying the brain’s neural network with noise injection to help it generalize. https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.09560

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization — mentioned by jtsiskin

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 19:35:23 GMT

Another interesting theory: dreams are to prevent overfitting and improve generalizability https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.09560.pdf

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization — mentioned by bfirsh

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 15:08:57 GMT

If you’re on a phone, here’s an HTML version: https://www.arxiv-vanity.com/papers/2007.09560/

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization — HN submission

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 12:52:11 GMT

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization

195 points; 71 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization — HN submission

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 22:54:32 GMT

The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization

2 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.