This is because of the __setattr__ method of the module:
def __setattr__(self, name, value):
def remove_from(*dicts):
for d in dicts:
if name in d:
del d[name]
params = self.__dict__.get('_parameters')
if isinstance(value, Parameter):
if params is None:
raise AttributeError(
"cannot assign parameters before Module.__init__() call")
remove_from(self.__dict__, self._buffers, self._modules)
self.register_parameter(name, value)
elif params is not None and name in params:
if value is not None:
raise TypeError("cannot assign '{}' as parameter '{}' "
"(torch.nn.Parameter or None expected)"
.format(torch.typename(value), name))
self.register_parameter(name, value)
There is a typecheck and a list is another type as nn.Parameter. For things like this you have ParameterList