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> it's based on a kind of maths called "promise theory" Promise theory is not math, despite its name. It doesn't predict anything, it doesn't explain any pheno

by dozzie 8y ago

> it's based on a kind of maths called "promise theory" Promise theory is not math, despite its name. It doesn't predict anything, it doesn't explain any phenomena. It's an architectural approach. Brilliant, led to a really great software (CFEngine), but it's not "maths".

atsaloli 8y ago
Basic concepts of promise theory (10 minute video by Mark Burgess who came up with it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TPsB5WuZgk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TPsB5WuZgk 2014 introductory article: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/promise-theory—what-it https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/promise-theory—what-it Basic book on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Promises-Designing-Systems-Cooperation/dp/1491917873 https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Promises-Designing-Systems-C... It's not "maths" like arithmentic but it's "maths" like graph theory: Promise Theory, in the context of information science, is a model of voluntary cooperation between individual, autonomous actors or agents who publish their intentions to one another in the form of promises. It is a form of labelled graph theory, describing discrete networks of agents joined by the unilateral promises they make. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promise_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promise_theory
- dozzie 8y ago
  > It's not "maths" like arithmentic but it's "maths" like graph theory It's less like graph theory and more like inversion of control: an architecture, not a set of theorems and their proofs. Even Burgess' own book you mentioned is nothing like a mathematical handbook. I'm a great fan of Mark Burgess and his promise theory, but calling it a mathematical theory or a mathematical domain is simply incorrect.
  - atsaloli 8y ago
    I hear you. The book I mentioned (Thinking in Promises) is the introductory-level public book. https://www.amazon.com/Promise-Theory-Principles-Applications-1/dp/1495437779/ https://www.amazon.com/Promise-Theory-Principles-Application... is the heavy-duty scientific stuff. "In Search of Certainty" (https://www.amazon.com/Search-Certainty-Science-Information-Infrastructure https://www.amazon.com/Search-Certainty-Science-Information-...) is somewhere in-between. I would say promise theory is its own kind of logic and notation. Thanks for the correction @dozzie.

by dozzie 8y ago

atsaloli 8y ago

Basic concepts of promise theory (10 minute video by Mark Burgess who came up with it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TPsB5WuZgk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TPsB5WuZgk 2014 introductory article: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/promise-theory—what-it https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/promise-theory—what-it Basic book on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Promises-Designing-Systems-Cooperation/dp/1491917873 https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Promises-Designing-Systems-C... It's not "maths" like arithmentic but it's "maths" like graph theory: Promise Theory, in the context of information science, is a model of voluntary cooperation between individual, autonomous actors or agents who publish their intentions to one another in the form of promises. It is a form of labelled graph theory, describing discrete networks of agents joined by the unilateral promises they make. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promise_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promise_theory

dozzie 8y ago
> It's not "maths" like arithmentic but it's "maths" like graph theory It's less like graph theory and more like inversion of control: an architecture, not a set of theorems and their proofs. Even Burgess' own book you mentioned is nothing like a mathematical handbook. I'm a great fan of Mark Burgess and his promise theory, but calling it a mathematical theory or a mathematical domain is simply incorrect.
- atsaloli 8y ago
  I hear you. The book I mentioned (Thinking in Promises) is the introductory-level public book. https://www.amazon.com/Promise-Theory-Principles-Applications-1/dp/1495437779/ https://www.amazon.com/Promise-Theory-Principles-Application... is the heavy-duty scientific stuff. "In Search of Certainty" (https://www.amazon.com/Search-Certainty-Science-Information-Infrastructure https://www.amazon.com/Search-Certainty-Science-Information-...) is somewhere in-between. I would say promise theory is its own kind of logic and notation. Thanks for the correction @dozzie.