3 ms·
`Why is this question encoded as string of 385 characters and why is there a set of 385 character long strings? I mean there could be just a set of strings of l
by laszlokorte 6y ago
`Why is this question encoded as string of 385 characters and why is there a set of 385 character long strings? I mean there could be just a set of strings of length 95 and the question could instead ask "why is this question of exactly 95 letters long and why is there a set of 95 char long strings?" but still this specific question is asking why it is 385 chars long, why is that so?`
- squibbles 6y agoOne answer to "Why is this question..." is because we have defined it so. And why did we define it so? One could make an argument that notions of sets, counting, length, and so on are anthropomorphisms -- we project our bodies onto the universe around us so we can reason about the environment using our specialized brains. (Human brains are specialized to operate in the context of our bodies.) In fact, the Whorf hypothesis [0][1][2] addressed this subject in the context of linguistics. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity [1] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/linguistics/#SoCalSapWhoHyp https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/linguistics/#SoCalSapWhoH... [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080430767030424 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B008043076... , https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/03042-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/03042-4