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Among the many bad arguments this article makes, the most glaring to me is assuming that the "distilled version" of Newton is superior to his original works. Li
by jeromebaek 8y ago
Among the many bad arguments this article makes, the most glaring to me is assuming that the "distilled version" of Newton is superior to his original works. Little known fact: Newton had profound insights in the philosophy of science, predicting, among other things, computational complexity,a and if these parts of his thought were heeded, maybe the "Enlightenment" wouldn't have made the terrible mistake of thinking (or willing) the world as a linear, rational place (it isn't.)
- acchow 8y agoNewton predicted computational complexity? Am I reading this right? What do you mean by that?
- coldtea 8y agoWhy would the parent mean anything else than what they wrote? Sounds like a very clear statement. Besides, computational complexity doesn't need computers as an abstraction to be conceived.
- boomlinde 8y agoIt's unclear for that reason. In a straight forward sense, computational complexity has naturally been observed for as long as we've computed things.
- jmcqk6 8y ago>Why would the parent mean anything else than what they wrote? Why would someone ask for more details about something if they already understood it? Just because something is clear to you doesn't mean it's clear to someone else. In other words, asking this question is very self-centered of you.
- coldtea 8y ago>Just because something is clear to you doesn't mean it's clear to someone else. Brushing the needless ad hominem aside, no, but things can also objectively be clear enough for everybody. Not everything is subjective...
- jmcqk6 8y agoThere is a difference between something being subjective and the ability of people to understand it. Subjectivity has nothing to do with how well something is understood.
- gt_ 8y agoI want to second the other response seeking elaboration. Will I need to read Newton? That sounds so fascinating. And to your reasoning for it’s importance, it’s quite optimistic to think it would have made a.difference but nonetheless every bit would have been worth the effort. What a nightmare!
- skybrian 8y ago"Superior" is meaningless without context. It's all relative to what your goals are. A historian should be reading primary sources. A high school student learning calculus is probably better off with something more modern.
- maze-le 8y agoHow do you come to the conclusion that Newton predicted computational complexity?