3 ms·
Sorry, this is my personal pet peeve: Your using two definitions of math. Let’s call them proper math and using math. Proper math consists solely of tautologies
by znkr 3y ago
Sorry, this is my personal pet peeve: Your using two definitions of math. Let’s call them proper math and using math. Proper math consists solely of tautologies; statements that are always true. Using math is when you make use of these tautologies.
Computers don’t do proper math, they use math. For example: We usually try to remove all tautologies from our programs.
A system of rules is not math. We can sometimes use math to analyze such a system though. For example: Law is a system of rules that’s definitely not math.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago> Proper math consists solely of tautologies; statements that are always true. Using math is when you make use of these tautologies. You forgot about axioms and definitions. If all you have is tautologies, you can never get to the point that 1+1 is 2, because 1 won't have a meaning. But by the time you're defining objects and their behavior, you've already lost the hypothetical distinction between "proper math" and "using math". There is no such distinction.
- znkr 3y agoYeah, it’s a simplification. You need to have something to make statements about. But that doesn’t change that what computers are doing is something completely different than what mathematics as a discipline cares about. It’s the same difference as the difference between high school math and mathematics as a discipline. Just because we use the same name for both doesn’t mean they are one.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoYou don't understand. We use the same name for both because they are one thing.