Viewing profile — kawa

Their starship was bullshit. On earth they needed a big Saturn 5 like rocket to bring it into space and later they fly into orbit like it's nothing. If the planets they visited had…

> What determinism do you argue does truly fall out in the end? Mechanics is fully deterministic. The question is if there is some kind of "QM random generator" which mixes into th…

(Spoilers) I think that the part about the guy who's brain traveled to the Trisolarians and communicated back by telling a fairy-tale may be a story about the author himself: He's …

> Just because a system is randomized doesn't mean it's not predictable That's of course true (In fact I tend to also believe in a non-deterministic universe "at the core"). But if…

> Sure, but there's absolutely nothing to suggest that it will be some kind of deterministic computation underneath The universe behaves very deterministically if we look at "clump…

> The best models Yes, models. But a model doesn't need to be "real", it just models something real to a certain extent. But models tend to break down if you look close enough, and…

"Thou" sounds very similar to german "du" which is the current informal form. In older german the second person plural ('Ihr', similar to "vous" french from which "you" may come) w…

An "unpure FP" is a procedural programming language, because "unpure functions" are generally called "procedures". But people tend to avoid the name "procedural" at all cost - whic…

Lisp is not a FP. It's a "List processing language" with some features based on Lambda calculus. Real FP means referential transparency and that started with languages like Miranda…

It's a little hyperbole but in principle it's true, especially in Germany. Of course you can like the concept of redistribution of income and wealth, but that doesn't makes it "bla…

Yes, it's quite complicated now (but it's getting better). But it's not as easy as replacing it with something simpler. If you do, you will discover all the things you can't do wit…

There's violence and there is violence. While I can enjoy an action movie or an UFC match, watching images from the Holocaust still makes me sick.

While people are of course more alike to each other than, for example humans and cows, there are still a lot of differences between single persons. People tend to assume that other…

If someone tries to explain stuff based on the "human psyche", it's important to understand that people aren't the same. If someone talks about "we" or "humanity" as a whole, he/sh…

Interestingly the way the author understood the joke with the eggs doesn't speak to well of him: A human can't lay eggs, so the only sensible conclusion is that the deluded person …

Why allows it for free will? Consider those two situations: A: You know everything and decide about something based on all the facts known to you B: You know everything and decide …

Whats a "disease" and whats not is not easy to define. If we could look at the living brain at a microscopic level, comparing individual dopamine receptors and the connectome of in…

Boys are more often diagnosed with ADHD (by a factor of 2 to 3) but that probably because boys simply have a higher base aggression level which is "added" to the ADHD symptoms whic…

The video discusses what engineering really is and what the differences are between software engineering and other kinds of engineering. Gives some food for thought and is kind of …

If you make the opening shot in billiards, the balls are all over the table in the end. In principle you could now make another shot which restores the original, ordered position, …

Observation means: Interaction with a 'classical system'. Now because of entanglement this also works if we look at chains of interactions: Interaction with another single atom for…

Politics works on a combination of public opinion and donations to candidates and parties. If you have a lot of money, it's quite easy to move things a bit in the direction you wan…

There's only so much profit in the drug business because of the illegality of many drugs. Changing that would kill the profits of many very rich and powerful criminals and cartels.…