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That's a misrepresentation. I took the trouble to find the offending paragraphs on my phone and paste them: ---- Dependencies 20th-century languages are all
by thanatropism 8y ago
That's a misrepresentation. I took the trouble to find the offending paragraphs on my phone and paste them:
----
Dependencies
20th-century languages are all at least vaguely based on a formalism from the ‘30s called the “lambda calculus.” The fundamental operation in lambda calculus is variable reduction from name to value. So lambda languages all have a symbol table or environment which binds names to values.
Modern build systems assemble large programs out of small files by reusing this symbol table for global function names, a process called “linking.” Unfortunately, linking causes a problem known as “dependency hell,” involving baffling, unpredictable upgrade failures. The fundamental problem is the “diamond dependency” — when a build requires two different versions of one symbol.
- empath75 8y ago‘From the 30’s’ sounds like it’s ancient technology. Most programming languages include arithmetic, a formalism from 3000 years ago.
- thanatropism 8y agoHe does make a number of references to "20th century's computer science" that imply he's got the new stuff. He also says "functional programming without abstract math", which reads a lot like "Austrian economics" (which Moldbug and Land swear for). I'm saying this in a thread about his politics, but my basic evaluation holds: he's probably not discovered a new system of government and a new computer science. But he's careful and scholarly with his arguments, and worth knowing.
- empath75 8y agoLol. He’s about as well informed on politics and philosophy as he is with computer science.
- antidesitter 8y agoLambda calculus was introduced in the 1930s, so Curtis’s statement is literally correct.