Chapter 1. Probabilistic programming in a nutshell
This chapter covers
- What is probabilistic programming?
- Why should I care about it? Why should my boss care?
- How does it work?
- Figaro—a system for probabilistic programming
- A comparison between writing a probabilistic application with and without probabilistic programming
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to make everyday decisions by using a probabilistic model and an inference algorithm—the two main components of a probabilistic reasoning system. You’ll also see how modern probabilistic programming languages make creating such reasoning systems far easier than a general-purpose language such as Java or Python would. This chapter also introduces Figaro, the probabilistic programming language based on Scala that’s used throughout the book.