Koshkin

38 ms·

661.
by Koshkin 4y ago
> Being completely unbiased is a form of psychopathy. Nice. On the other hand, we must remember that biases can be, and are, exploited: “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”
662.
by Koshkin 4y ago
> rationalize the opposing viewpoints Putting oneself in the other’s place is the least one can do. But in politics, for example, all you will find is that there’s no right or wrong but rather opposing interests (of which there may b
663.
by Koshkin 4y ago
You are entitled to have your own opinion on this.
664.
by Koshkin 4y ago
How many Russian lives do you think it’s worth spending to keep these territories occupied? (Wars are almost like natural catastrophes, they do not give people much choice.)
665.
by Koshkin 4y ago
> with no empire I don’t know about that, Russia still looks like a full-blown empire (like it has invariably been for the last 300 years).
666.
by Koshkin 4y ago
My point was that it seems that in calculations it is useful to think of very large integers that are known to some approximation as real numbers.
667.
by Koshkin 4y ago
I was only objecting to math being called a branch of philosophy.
668.
by Koshkin 4y ago
How to add two whole numbers is not a question of philosophy.
669.
by Koshkin 4y ago
In a 1-bit universe 1+1=0.
670.
by Koshkin 4y ago
Indeed, the Avogadro number is an integer that is always given in the form of a floating point number. The reals is such a useful abstraction.
671.
by Koshkin 4y ago
The effect of a brick falling on someone’s head is not a philosophical question, and neither is one about the common that clearly exists between, say, three horses and three apples you want treat these horses with.
672.
by Koshkin 4y ago
How to add two whole numbers is a philosophical question?
673.
by Koshkin 4y ago
Philosophically speaking, everything is (or can be) a subject of philosophy, including philosophy itself.
674.
by Koshkin 4y ago
“Philosophy tries to answer questions that do not have answers; theology studies that which does not exist.’
675.
by Koshkin 4y ago
Just like integers, the real numbers are an abstraction, and so their reality as such is a philosophical question (which, despite being quite straightforward to answer, I have seen to confuse a lot of people).
676.
by Koshkin 4y ago
The usual computer architecture includes the representation of floating-point numbers that is a very efficient (albeit imprecise) model of the reals.
677.
by Koshkin 4y ago
Well, by your definition even division of reals is not closed - which means that your definition is not a correct one. A closed operation is allowed to have an "undefined" result. (And, by the way, division of integers is perfectl
678.
by Koshkin 4y ago
The rule int<N> * int<N> —> int<2*N> breaks one of important expectations from a type, which is the property on being “closed” with respect to certain operations. Even if an arithmetical operation increases the length o
679.
by Koshkin 4y ago
If you care about efficiency, you have to take computer architecture into account. (One important example is that floating-point numbers are not reals we tend to think of them as.)
680.
by Koshkin 4y ago
Types exist for a reason, and one is the desire for consistency (or uniformity) of representation: say, I want to be able to store the result of an operation in the storage element which looks the same as those where the operands came from
681.
by Koshkin 4y ago
But in a (typed) language, types are constraints that must be respected (regardless of what hardware does), and integer precision (as specified in code) is one of them.
682.
by Koshkin 4y ago
Please do not put your own words in Dijkstra's mouth: he said exactly what needed to be said.
683.
by Koshkin 4y ago
> any reasonable programmer FTFY
684.
by Koshkin 4y ago
“Too realistic,” I’d say - it’s the only FS where I was never able to take off in a Cessna 172. (Even after having flown a real one.)
685.
by Koshkin 4y ago
1/40,000,000 of the Earth’s circumference does not make sense to me, but the foot does. (As does the school bus.)
686.
by Koshkin 4y ago
These are perfectly good measurement units. (Also, football field.)
687.
by Koshkin 4y ago
> stringly-typed Love this
688.
by Koshkin 4y ago
> Just like YouTube most content is crap. Well, most of everything in the Universe is “crap.” But, to each their own, and I find YouTube to be a treasure trove of educational content, among other things.
689.
by Koshkin 4y ago
U-238 must be pretty safe, given its long half-life?
690.
by Koshkin 4y ago
From Wikipedia: the busy beaver game consists of designing a halting Turing machine with alphabet {0,1} which writes the most 1s on the tape, using only a given set of states. The rules for the 2-state game are as follows: the machine must

More ›