5 ms·
But you do need a math PhD to code it, because if you were coding it, you'd be Tarn Adams, who has a math PhD. There is no state in which one can be "coding Dwa
by moron4hire 5y ago
But you do need a math PhD to code it, because if you were coding it, you'd be Tarn Adams, who has a math PhD. There is no state in which one can be "coding Dwarf Fortress" and "not have a math PhD".
- h0l0cube 5y agoI'd posit that there could exist an alternate universe where someone without a math PhD made exactly Dwarf Fortress
- reilly3000 5y agoWell if such a universe exists, there is probably one where it turns out exactly the same w/o math PhD, and another where its a very different game. In any case, we're not privy to those universe's goings on :/
- h0l0cube 5y agoTo that I'd say if you had a jazillion monkeys with a jazillion typewriters, the monkey that types Dwarf Fortress has at most at 50% chance of having a PhD
- teruakohatu 5y agoThat universe exists and the game is called Rimworld!
- pineaux 5y agoI thought it was discworld
- mathattack 5y agoTurtles all the way down
- qbit 5y agoI would make an even stronger assertion that this is almost certainly the case. ;-)
- moron4hire 5y agoClassic theoretical mathematician answer, but games are applied mathematics :P
- bscphil 5y agoThe most reasonable gloss on "You need a math PHD to code Dwarf Fortress" is "Necessarily, if someone codes Dwarf Fortress, they have a math PhD." The modality "necessarily" is widely understood to refer to possible alternative states of affairs, not merely those states of affairs which are actual. In other words, if an alternative state of affairs is possible, in which someone (whether Tarn Adams or someone else) codes Dwarf Fortress without a math PhD, then it is not true that it is necessary to have a math PhD to code Dwarf Fortress. Most people in this thread believe that since a math PhD did not play a crucial role in Adams's ability to develop Dwarf Fortress, then it is true that such an alternative state of affairs is possible. (The language of "alternative universes" - usually called possible worlds in the literature - is one way of getting at this.)