4 ms·

Inviolability of Telegraphic Correspondence (1879)

29 points by cokernel 11y ago

cokernel 11y ago
This analysis was written by Thomas M. Cooley, who was Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court at the time. It was mentioned in passing in a Guardian article discussed here recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10401416 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10401416 The first page is here: https://archive.org/stream/jstor-3303981/3303981#page/n1/mode/2up https://archive.org/stream/jstor-3303981/3303981#page/n1/mod... Not sure why the link shows the final page as the thumbnail.
jacquesm 11y ago
There's a lot of stuff that has happened in the past couple of years that proves to me that history is not necessarily a monotonic increase in state across a number of measurable parameters, there are a ton of cyclic elements. Some of those cycles are sinusoidal (pendulum like phenomenon) and some are of the sawtooth variety (slow rise with eventual crash). In 1879 the world was ahead of us in some ways and behind in many others, if we're not careful then we may end up behind 1879 in many others as well.
- phreeza 11y ago
  Re: Sinusoidal vs Sawtooth patterns, in fourier analysis a sawtooth is just a bunch of sinusoids with the phase aligned. I wonder if these sharp transitions just occur when many factors with different frequencies happen to align in phase. 1848 and 1968 come to mind as years when this seems to have happened.
  - moyix 11y ago
    In Fourier analysis, everything is just a bunch of sinusoids ;) And it seems to me that there are also sawtooth patterns that aren't clearly the alignment of lots of sinusoidal patterns, such as market bubbles.
    - jmount 11y ago
      There are definitely graphs that can only be approximated by Fourier methods (such as square waves). The issue is related to Gibbs phenomena: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbs_phenomenon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbs_phenomenon
      - moyix 11y ago
        You're correct; I was thinking of L^p (p > 1) convergence almost everywhere.
    - phreeza 11y ago
      The emphasis was supposed to be on the part with the phases being aligned (at the point of the steepest slope) :)
- Dav3xor 11y ago
  Heinlein's 'Year of the Jackpot' is a rumination on this topic.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    Thank you for tonights reading :) Edit: wow, that was quite a story, thank you again...
contingencies 11y ago
Blocked in China: the irony.

29 points by cokernel 11y ago

This analysis was written by Thomas M. Cooley, who was Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court at the time. It was mentioned in passing in a Guardian article discussed here recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10401416 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10401416 The first page is here: https://archive.org/stream/jstor-3303981/3303981#page/n1/mode/2up https://archive.org/stream/jstor-3303981/3303981#page/n1/mod... Not sure why the link shows the final page as the thumbnail.

jacquesm 11y ago

There's a lot of stuff that has happened in the past couple of years that proves to me that history is not necessarily a monotonic increase in state across a number of measurable parameters, there are a ton of cyclic elements. Some of those cycles are sinusoidal (pendulum like phenomenon) and some are of the sawtooth variety (slow rise with eventual crash). In 1879 the world was ahead of us in some ways and behind in many others, if we're not careful then we may end up behind 1879 in many others as well.

phreeza 11y ago
Re: Sinusoidal vs Sawtooth patterns, in fourier analysis a sawtooth is just a bunch of sinusoids with the phase aligned. I wonder if these sharp transitions just occur when many factors with different frequencies happen to align in phase. 1848 and 1968 come to mind as years when this seems to have happened.
- moyix 11y ago
  In Fourier analysis, everything is just a bunch of sinusoids ;) And it seems to me that there are also sawtooth patterns that aren't clearly the alignment of lots of sinusoidal patterns, such as market bubbles.
  - jmount 11y ago
    There are definitely graphs that can only be approximated by Fourier methods (such as square waves). The issue is related to Gibbs phenomena: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbs_phenomenon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbs_phenomenon
    - moyix 11y ago
      You're correct; I was thinking of L^p (p > 1) convergence almost everywhere.
  - phreeza 11y ago
    The emphasis was supposed to be on the part with the phases being aligned (at the point of the steepest slope) :)
Dav3xor 11y ago
Heinlein's 'Year of the Jackpot' is a rumination on this topic.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  Thank you for tonights reading :) Edit: wow, that was quite a story, thank you again...

contingencies 11y ago

Blocked in China: the irony.