4 ms·

Such a great post on how people are blind to their blindspots - and even when trying to think critically still have trouble seeing the water they swim in.

kragen 3y ago
thanks as the llenothians say, 'we don't know who discovered ammonia, but it wasn't a 𐇳𐇚𐇺𐇠𐇺' (if you enjoyed this you might also enjoy my notes in https://dercuano.github.io/notes/2017-sap-allocation.html https://dercuano.github.io/notes/2017-sap-allocation.html, which is less strictly factual)
- namanyayg 3y ago
  Very fun and interesting blog. What's the rationale behind that powers of 3 number system though?
  - kragen 3y ago
    glad you enjoyed it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_ternary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_ternary has some enjoyable advantages over more conventional number systems; numbers are a lot shorter than in binary, but arithmetic is nearly as easy, and it accommodates negative numbers naturally and inherently rather than through a length-dependent hack like twos' complement. under certain plausible assumptions about your available hardware, it has about a 5.7% device complexity advantage over binary (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix_economy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix_economy), though those assumptions often do not hold in practice so i thought it would make a good example of path-dependent divergences: this alternative system is arguably better than binary, decimal, vigesimal, or sexagesimal, but not by enough to make it worth the incompatibility in the real world an extraterrestrial society with a different history, and thus no need for compatibility with c, ascii, ttl, and synchronous-logic eda platforms, might have taken a different path
- billiam 3y ago
  Entertaining stuff, even if it makes you seem a bit more crazy (but you know, a good kind of crazy). Rock on.
  - kragen 3y ago
    thank you

kragen 3y ago

thanks as the llenothians say, 'we don't know who discovered ammonia, but it wasn't a 𐇳𐇚𐇺𐇠𐇺' (if you enjoyed this you might also enjoy my notes in https://dercuano.github.io/notes/2017-sap-allocation.html https://dercuano.github.io/notes/2017-sap-allocation.html, which is less strictly factual)

namanyayg 3y ago
Very fun and interesting blog. What's the rationale behind that powers of 3 number system though?
- kragen 3y ago
  glad you enjoyed it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_ternary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_ternary has some enjoyable advantages over more conventional number systems; numbers are a lot shorter than in binary, but arithmetic is nearly as easy, and it accommodates negative numbers naturally and inherently rather than through a length-dependent hack like twos' complement. under certain plausible assumptions about your available hardware, it has about a 5.7% device complexity advantage over binary (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix_economy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix_economy), though those assumptions often do not hold in practice so i thought it would make a good example of path-dependent divergences: this alternative system is arguably better than binary, decimal, vigesimal, or sexagesimal, but not by enough to make it worth the incompatibility in the real world an extraterrestrial society with a different history, and thus no need for compatibility with c, ascii, ttl, and synchronous-logic eda platforms, might have taken a different path
billiam 3y ago
Entertaining stuff, even if it makes you seem a bit more crazy (but you know, a good kind of crazy). Rock on.
- kragen 3y ago
  thank you