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"Truth values are in fact a binary difference, fuzzy logic is a tiny portion of mathematics." "Light switches are in fact a binary difference, dimmer switches

"Truth values are in fact a binary difference, fuzzy logic is a tiny portion of mathematics." "Light switches are in fact a binary difference, dimmer switches are a small portion of all switches." "Life is in fact a binary difference, brain death patients are a tiny portion of all patients."

SamReidHughes 9y ago
In the context of there being measurable differences between the sets of males and females, 99% is binary enough.
- Pulcinella 9y ago
  "99% server uptime is enough!"
  - LyndsySimon 9y ago
    Indeed - we design systems to operate under the expectation that services are available. We handle their not being available as an exceptional case. This seems analogous; we should design social structures (or allow social structures to emerge) that assume that individuals are male or female, but which handle the exceptional case of non-cisgendered individuals. Just like a software system that doesn't handle exceptions gracefully, a social system that lacks provisions for these is fundamentally flawed and can fail unexpectedly and potentially catastrophically.
    - gspetr 9y ago
      Catastrophically how? Society also lacks "provisions" for violent criminals[0] but it still handles them and is yet to fail catastrophically. [0] I'm not equating these two categories of people, merely illustrating that your example of comparing software exceptions to people is deeply flawed.
- door 9y ago
  ...but that obviously isn't true. by every single metric, there is more variation within genders than between genders: physical fitness, intelligence, personality, interests, etc. gender is a totally artificial, socially constructed way to organize people.
tbrownaw 9y ago
"Truth values are in fact a binary difference, fuzzy logic is a tiny portion of mathematics." Metastable states[0] are a tiny portion of all logic values. They exist and are inherently unavoidable, but somehow massively complicated systems that fundamentally rely on the assumption that values are either 0 or 1 still work. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability_in_electronics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability_in_electronics

SamReidHughes 9y ago

In the context of there being measurable differences between the sets of males and females, 99% is binary enough.

Pulcinella 9y ago
"99% server uptime is enough!"
- LyndsySimon 9y ago
  Indeed - we design systems to operate under the expectation that services are available. We handle their not being available as an exceptional case. This seems analogous; we should design social structures (or allow social structures to emerge) that assume that individuals are male or female, but which handle the exceptional case of non-cisgendered individuals. Just like a software system that doesn't handle exceptions gracefully, a social system that lacks provisions for these is fundamentally flawed and can fail unexpectedly and potentially catastrophically.
  - gspetr 9y ago
    Catastrophically how? Society also lacks "provisions" for violent criminals[0] but it still handles them and is yet to fail catastrophically. [0] I'm not equating these two categories of people, merely illustrating that your example of comparing software exceptions to people is deeply flawed.
door 9y ago
...but that obviously isn't true. by every single metric, there is more variation within genders than between genders: physical fitness, intelligence, personality, interests, etc. gender is a totally artificial, socially constructed way to organize people.

tbrownaw 9y ago

"Truth values are in fact a binary difference, fuzzy logic is a tiny portion of mathematics." Metastable states[0] are a tiny portion of all logic values. They exist and are inherently unavoidable, but somehow massively complicated systems that fundamentally rely on the assumption that values are either 0 or 1 still work. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability_in_electronics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability_in_electronics