Recent submissions

Comment · 3 years ago
> We do know that mathematical frameworks cannot be at the same time totally complete and internally consistent.

I take it you're referencing Godel's theorems here, but "consistent" and "complete" have rather technical (and somewhat limited) meanings within that context, so it's not clear to me how they'd usefully map onto the potential relationship between QM and GR?

Comment · 3 years ago
1) [citation needed]

2) even if this is true, at least we're not, I dunno, dying in our 30s and have things like running water?

Comment · 3 years ago
> The argument that this is a net positive for society could use a little substantiation.

The majority of societies that have tried anything different were/are significantly worse for the average person. That seems like more than a little substantiation.

Comment · 3 years ago
> Europeans have maybe a few words or even just one word to describe snow

Really? In common use: snow, sleet, hail, flurry, frost, hoar, ice, rime, (snow)drift, powder, slush. Less commonly: firn, neve, sastrugi, suncups, ...

Comment · 3 years ago
> a literal manifestation of two-ness in front of him

Did he though? Are there two gloves, or 100 wool threads, or a 10^23 atoms? Would a different mind see the same thing?

Comment · 3 years ago
Repasting the quote without addressing the response does not do much to bolster your position - perhaps the opposite!
Comment · 3 years ago
> we don't particularly use a lot of them and even when we do, the taste is better, but not extremely so

Speak for yourself!

Comment · 3 years ago
>> "how Auckland fixed it"

Anyone who lives in Auckland: bahahahahhaha

Comment · 3 years ago
Technically yes, but in practice I think the victims and survivors of extinction events might beg to differ
Comment · 3 years ago
>> Lawyers make laws, directly or indirectly

Really? In every country I've live in, politicians write laws, judges set precedents, and lawyers only get to make arguments. True, the first two are often & always former lawyers, but that seems as reasonable as how doctors get to determine best medical practice.

Comment · 3 years ago
"LLM and AGI"

Feels like the three letters A-G-I are doing a lot of heavy lifting there

Comment · 3 years ago
Agreed...if you have to introduce an "agent" to make it complete, is it Tetris that's complete or Tetris + an agent?
Comment · 3 years ago
Imho the fact that a Turing machine is capable of universal computation is surprising/insightful. I'm not sure the fact that other simple systems are then also complete adds much more surprise/insight, even if it's difficult to predict which ones will be.

What I think people often miss is the difference between computational completeness and computational "power". Yes rule 110 is complete, but what that means in practice is that you've shifted most of the work (for solving a real problem) onto specifying the initial conditions.

Maybe Tetris is Turing complete but it's still a lot easier to compute 2+2 on a pocket calculator.

Comment · 3 years ago
It's not uncommon for the T&Cs of tickets and such to require photo ID...in which case?
Comment · 3 years ago
"just"

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton