3 ms·

Jonathan Blow tweeted about this last night - I particularly agree with him about how everyone ridiculed the old politician who said the Internet was a "series

by GuiA 11y ago

Jonathan Blow tweeted about this last night - I particularly agree with him about how everyone ridiculed the old politician who said the Internet was a "series of pipes", but here everyone is praising the young, hot Trudeau for his knowledge of quantum computing when really the two display a similar level of basic understanding about that subject. In any case, it's not about the politicians' knowledge - it's not Trudeau's job to know about QC - but how the public's . https://mobile.twitter.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/721407108852232192 https://mobile.twitter.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/721407108852...

archgoon 11y ago
Well, here's the original Steven's quote. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE He was mocked more at the time for the email bit, namely the idea that the reason why he didn't get his email for 4 days was because of people streaming videos on the internet. However, it's not clear that he had a good understanding of the analogy himself (I'm sure that revisionists like Mr. Blow, who do understand how the internet work, can justify it, but it's not Mr. Blow's understanding that we're interested in here, as Mr. Blow is not proposing legislation to block Net Neutrality). In addition to the email bit, he seems to believe that the internet used to be a point to point communication network, whereas now the "industry wisely provided streaming, in effect, a kind of long distance, which is what we've got now". Given this, it's really not clear at all what "it's not a truck, it's a series of tubes" is supposed to clarify. Now, if Mr. Trudeau was using his understanding of Quantum Computing to justify a large government subsidy of DWave, there would be good cause to look at this throwaway quote in more detail.
- SilasX 11y ago
  >Given this, it's really not clear at all what "it's not a truck, it's a series of tubes" is supposed to clarify. I always assumed that was distinguishing between "quantized" and continuous network systems. That is, adding one more load to a truck ("just dump"ing something on it), one more person to a bus, doesn't make the roads any more congested, but trying to send one more gallon of water through a pipe system will slow it down or add to the queue length. The internet, then, is more like the latter, in that every piece of information carries some opportunity cost to sending, rather than being a bunch of trucks with spare, underutilized capacity.
  - archgoon 11y ago
    > but trying to send one more gallon of water through a pipe system. If you actually forced an additional gallon of water into a pipe, you make everything flow out faster.
    - SilasX 11y ago
      Right but the relevant user action here would be turning on a faucet, which slows things down for everyone else.
      - archgoon 11y ago
        >I'm sure that revisionists like Mr. Blow, who do understand how the internet work, can justify it, but it's not Mr. Blow's understanding that we're interested in here, as Mr. Blow is not proposing legislation to block Net Neutrality.

by GuiA 11y ago

archgoon 11y ago

Well, here's the original Steven's quote. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE He was mocked more at the time for the email bit, namely the idea that the reason why he didn't get his email for 4 days was because of people streaming videos on the internet. However, it's not clear that he had a good understanding of the analogy himself (I'm sure that revisionists like Mr. Blow, who do understand how the internet work, can justify it, but it's not Mr. Blow's understanding that we're interested in here, as Mr. Blow is not proposing legislation to block Net Neutrality). In addition to the email bit, he seems to believe that the internet used to be a point to point communication network, whereas now the "industry wisely provided streaming, in effect, a kind of long distance, which is what we've got now". Given this, it's really not clear at all what "it's not a truck, it's a series of tubes" is supposed to clarify. Now, if Mr. Trudeau was using his understanding of Quantum Computing to justify a large government subsidy of DWave, there would be good cause to look at this throwaway quote in more detail.

SilasX 11y ago
>Given this, it's really not clear at all what "it's not a truck, it's a series of tubes" is supposed to clarify. I always assumed that was distinguishing between "quantized" and continuous network systems. That is, adding one more load to a truck ("just dump"ing something on it), one more person to a bus, doesn't make the roads any more congested, but trying to send one more gallon of water through a pipe system will slow it down or add to the queue length. The internet, then, is more like the latter, in that every piece of information carries some opportunity cost to sending, rather than being a bunch of trucks with spare, underutilized capacity.
- archgoon 11y ago
  > but trying to send one more gallon of water through a pipe system. If you actually forced an additional gallon of water into a pipe, you make everything flow out faster.
  - SilasX 11y ago
    Right but the relevant user action here would be turning on a faucet, which slows things down for everyone else.
    - archgoon 11y ago
      >I'm sure that revisionists like Mr. Blow, who do understand how the internet work, can justify it, but it's not Mr. Blow's understanding that we're interested in here, as Mr. Blow is not proposing legislation to block Net Neutrality.