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The frontier was breached when someone found that powerful technique. Then it was no longer the frontier
by wittycardio 5y ago
The frontier was breached when someone found that powerful technique. Then it was no longer the frontier
- dekhn 5y agono, in science, technique isn't frontier, discovery is. technique is just what you build to expand the frontier.
- wittycardio 5y agoNot in cs theory or math, it is almost entirely a study of technique. If you look at papers quite often the abstract will emphasize the novelty of their technique rather than just the result
- dekhn 5y agoneither cs theory nor math is science. CS theory is a form of applied math, and math is not science, it's a distinct process (that is used by science, as a technique). My comment doesn't apply there.
- wittycardio 5y agoThis is an article about CS theory...
- dekhn 5y agothis subthread is about science, I'm responding to https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/11/17/the-alzheimer-photo/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/11/17/the-alzheimer-photo/
- Frost1x 5y agoI like to view of it more as a leap in knowledge. Someone jumped not just a foot into the frontier but half a mile and setup camp. Now, there's half a mile of land for people to safely and easily scout through knowing they can always setup camp at the new established camp and work back towards previous understanding or work from previous understanding to the new camp. There's often a lot of low hanging fruit to be had here once a leap, not small incremental step into the frontier, has been made.