Viewing profile — mattfenwick

The paper ( http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna... ) is not an example of good science. First: did they even find some kind of correlation, or is it just a…

That's right. And it's not even clear that they found a correlation that would hold up in different experimental conditions. The paper is at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad…

I think the word syntax is ambiguous. Is homoiconicity about concrete syntax ? Abstract syntax ? Both? Some other kind of syntax? Does parsing have something to do with homoiconici…

This is my understanding of homoiconicity. There's a good chance that I'm wrong. Comments and clarifications welcome! ----- Is homoiconicity about concrete syntax? I think the answ…

My suggestion is to use "side effects" -- it seems to me that most people have an intuitive understanding of that term. ... but I may be wrong about that.

From your article: > Monads are not "about effects". What is your definition of "effects"? I ask because this article[0] and many others[1] seem[2] to use a contradictory definitio…

Sure, we can't rule out those possibilities ... but to me it just sounds like wild speculation.

Oops, instead of "reality" I meant "experimental observations". Good catch. > You arbitrarily claim to be able to make accurate assertions of reality Nope. > while at the same time…

At no point did I touch on morality or ethics. I do not know why you think that I did so. > I agree with you that experimentation is futile in the absence of ethics. I do not agree…

I'm not sure that I agree. I think that once you get into the realm of "absolute truth" (which is what I'm interpreting your post as saying -- apologies if I'm mistaken), you've le…

An alternative viewpoint: everything's easy after it's been done, but it's hard up until then. > after centuries of science as a profession, pretty much all the easy stuff has alre…

> If I say that an airplane functions on fairy dust and you make an argument about propulsion and lift, and you claim that my assertion is wrong because ... The only reason "scienc…

> Philosophically speaking you can never verify anything through experimentation This depends on what you mean by "verify". You seem to mean "prove that something is absolutely tru…

I do agree with you that science doesn't show causation, but I think your interpretation of science is incorrect: > Therefore, all scientific analysis is unverifiable. I disagree. …

> it's fair to say that experiment shows causation No, that experiment doesn't show causation. > I do think 'perhaps' we could use correlation more to assume causation. I think we …

Wow, I had no idea that such a thing existed. That is far more feature-rich. Thanks for posting it. However, one advantage (or disadvantage depending on your P.O.V :) ) of the Cloj…

Author here. Thanks! What other features could the Clojalyzer provide that you would find useful?

Author here. That's really cool! Thanks for posting it, it's giving me more ideas for improving the Clojalyzer. What are your favorite or most useful features of godoc?

I don't know what you would like clarified, so please let me know if this doesn't cover it: IMHO, the OP is presenting a DSL (DSL = domain specific language), and there are at leas…

This seems to be implemented as an external DSL, with a brand new syntax and semantics. So my question is, why do that instead of implement it as an embedded DSL? (Disclaimer: this…

It's difficult to see the point because it's not a very good example. Why do Elephants inherit from Node (they seem entirely unrelated)? How can I put things other than Elephants i…

> Could we generally agree that language is instinctual and follows formal or formalalizable rules No, not without some evidence. ---- > First in it's immediate dismissal of any fo…