Dice Question Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Historical Influence on Devroye’s Achievabilist Ideas

Determine whether Luc Devroye’s 1982 impossibility result and achievabilist perspective in classification were influenced by Neyman and Pearson (1936) or other antecedents in statistics or theoretical computer science.

Information Square Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Background

The paper traces achievabilism through statistics, machine learning, and theoretical computer science, noting Devroye’s 1982 impossibility result (no-free-lunch theorem) as pivotal for machine learning. The author explicitly acknowledges uncertainty about Devroye’s intellectual influences, especially any connection to Neyman and Pearson’s 1936 achievabilist move.

Clarifying Devroye’s influences would enrich the historical narrative linking statistical and computational foundations of achievabilism.

References

Did Devroye get the achievabilist idea from someone else? That, I don't know. In particular, I do not know whether Devroye was influenced by the achievabilist thought in Neyman {content} Pearson (1936).

— A Plea for History and Philosophy of Statistics and Machine Learning (2506.22236 - Lin, 27 Jun 2025) in Section 5.2 (Classification: Machine Learning, 1970s–2010s)