metabias

— An algorithm needs some method of altering its base bias as it is presented with sets of instances. The major claim of this paper is that, as the vast majority of algorithms are intended for use on a collection of problem instances, that meta bias is therefore necessary. Evidence for the fact that algorithms are intended to be reused is that the proponents of newly proposed algorithm test them on a number of problem instances which are reported in their papers. Meta bias is any mechanism which can adjust the base bias (see figure 2 i.e. it is a probability distribution over a set of base biases).