Generalist and Specialist Classifiers

This might suggest that a classifier that generates thousands of output messages is to be preferred over one that generates a more modest number, but we can see why this is unlikely to be true by considering the action of classifiers such as  

The condition part of these classifiers contains several symbols, so the classifiers will be satisfied by many input messages and, therefore, generate numerous output messages. 

Classifiers that contain many symbols in their condition part are known as generalists, as they will be satisfied by a wide variety of different input messages. The first classifier given above is the supreme generalist, since any message turns it on. By contrast, classifiers whose condition part contains 

---