> For literal-minded folks like us, the idea that key properties of what we consider cold hard objective reality is in fact just squishy agreement can be unsettling. Hell, half of us got into computers specifically to avoid hand-wavey subjectivism.
Objective reality begins to falter even before leaving computing. For example: values for binary ones and zeros are hand-wavey down in the hardware voltage level. People believe it is as simple as: 5V is one and 0V is zero. In reality, (5V TTL logic levels) voltages above 2.7V are high/one and below 0.8V are low/zero. Details: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/logic-levels/all
Objective reality begins to falter even before leaving computing. For example: values for binary ones and zeros are hand-wavey down in the hardware voltage level. People believe it is as simple as: 5V is one and 0V is zero. In reality, (5V TTL logic levels) voltages above 2.7V are high/one and below 0.8V are low/zero. Details: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/logic-levels/all