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the yin-yang, white / white

阴xor阳

2021
Nonlinear neural network classifier of three neurons, written by hand into an Ethereum smart contract, four images on IPFS 11064 × 11064 px Released by the artist, August 2021 Ethereum 0x2a64…841f NM21CD003 Unique work

A yin-yang shared between me and the owner. Each of us can turn one half light or dark, and the symbol is balanced only when the two halves are opposite. That rule is XOR, one or the other but not both. In 1969 Minsky and Papert showed that a single layer of neurons cannot compute it, and that pushed research toward networks with several layers. The contract holds the smallest network that can: three neurons. Every change is recorded on chain, a diary of the harmony, or the tension, between artist and collector. The day after the last change, on 29 September 2021, the owner called it an onchain neural network, "likely the first ever".

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