2nd Paragraph: How do they know they are even bits? How do they know the bits are supposed to be numbers? What kind of numbers? Relating to what? Etc
It contravenes the common and historical use of the word 'data' to imply undifferentiated bits/scribbles. It means facts/observations/measurements/information and you must at least grant it sufficient formatting and metadata to satisfy that definition. The fact that most data requires some human involvement for interpretation (e.g. pointing the right program at the right data) in no way negates its utility (we've lea…
I think in the Science of Process that is being related as a desirable goal, everything would necessarily be a dynamic object (or perhaps something similar to this but fuzzier or more relational or different in some other way, but definitely dynamic) because data by itself is static while the world itself is not.
Isn't the interpreter code itself data in the sense that it has no meaning without something (a machine) to run it? How do you avoid having to send an interpreter for the interpreter and so on?
Yes, so think about how to make this work "nicely" in an Intergalactic Network ...
It can't be turtles all the way down, so maybe set theory?
This is one of the best threads HN has ever seen and we couldn't be more thrilled to have had such an interesting and wide-ranging discussion. I know I'm not the only one who will be going back over the wealth of insights, ideas, and pointers here in the weeks to come. Alan, a huge and heartfelt thanks from all of us. The quality and quantity (over 250 posts!) of what you shared with the community surpassed all expec…
@dang thanks to YC for making this happen! I read HN for the comments and this AMA showed why HN has the best comments on the internet.
I think object is a very powerful idea to wrap "local" context. But in a network (communication) environment, it is still challenging to handle "remote" context with object. That is why we have APIs and serialization/deserialization overhead. In the ideal homogeneous world of smalltalk, it is a less issue. But if you want a Windows machine to talk to a Unix, the remote context becomes an issue. In principle we can se…
This is why "the objects of the future" have to be ambassadors that can negotiate with other objects they've never seen. Think about this as one of the consequences of massive scaling ...
Sounds pretty much like the problem of establishing contact with an alien civilization. Definitely set theory, prime numbers, arithmetic and so on... I guess at some point, objects will be equipped with general intelligence for such negotiations if they are to be true digital ambassadors!
The way you describe music here sounds a lot like how Steve Pinker has described music: as a mental equivalent of cheesecake; something that just happens to trigger all the right reward systems (the ones based on our love of patterns and structure, and exploiting the same biological systems we use for language) but isn't necessarily nutritious itself. However, all evidence points to him being wrong about this, making…
The way you describe music here sounds a lot like how Steve Pinker has described music: as a mental equivalent of cheesecake;...isn't necessarily nutritious itself. Note that I didn't mean that in a negative way. Also, if you want to consume macro-nutrients, cheesecake is a pretty effective way to get simple carbs and dairy fat. is strongly tied to social bonding, emotions and motor systems in ways that have nothing…
What are some examples of such well-constructed games?
The introduction to technology, well, essentially I'm talking about internet, is so early on a kids life that we can't just say "we should control ourselves". You can't put your kid in a room full of crisps, sweets, alcohol, drugs, pornography, and expect it to come out ten, fifteen years later as a healthy individual that is not an addict to none of them. This is what we essentially do with the internet. > I myself…
You can't put your kid in a room full of crisps, sweets, alcohol, drugs, pornography, and expect it to come out ten, fifteen years later as a healthy individual that is not an addict to none of them I know this is bandied about a lot, but is this actually proven? With the exception of drugs, all of those you mention have been within easy reach for me (actually, as a Dutchman, even softdrugs were just one step away if…
I think there exist records of hospital mix-ups with babies, with pretty profound differences changing them depending on what environment they wound up in, but this may be mostly anecdotal. One case in Japan like this but it illustrated wealth difference as opposed to what we're looking for here.
Provocative but not evidence. I did look up some twin studies but I can't find one with a clear vice/virtue environment study. Gwern is good at ferreting out this kind of information if you ask him.
Hi Alan, Whats the next step to improve remote working? Face to face still seems to be so superior for relationship building and problem solving despite the wealth of video conferencing, social and collaboration tools we have. I don't want to wear goggles... thanks!
Take a look at Hiroshi Ishii's "Clearboard" etc (look on YouTube)
I skype frequently. To feel connected, simply having the camera imbedded in the monitor itself is enough to convince the other person that I'm looking at them in the eye.
Just to pick three (and maybe not even at the top of my list if I were to write it and sort it), are (a) Intel and Motorola, etc. getting really interested in the Parc HW architectures that allowed Very High Level Languages to be efficiently implemented. Not having this in the 80s brought "not very good ideas from the 50s and 60s" back into programming, and was one of the big factors in: (b) the huge propensity of "w…
I get (a) and (b) completely. On (c), I felt this way about NCSA Mosaic in 1993 when I first saw it and I'm relieved to hear you say this because although I definitely misunderstood a major technology shift for a few years, maybe I wasn't wrong in my initial reaction that it was stupid.
I didn't begin to get it until the industry started trying to use browsers for applications in the late '90s/early 2000's. I took one look at the "stateful" architecture they were trying to use, and I said to myself, "This is a hack." I learned shortly thereafter about criticism of it saying the same thing, "This is an attempt to impose statefulness on an inherently stateless architecture." I kept wondering why the industry wasn't using X11, which already had the ability to carry out full GUI interactions remotely. Why reject a real-time interactive architecture that's designed for network use for one that insisted on page refreshes to update the display? The whole thing felt like a step backward. The point where it clobbered me over the head was when I tried to use a web application framework to make a complex web form application work. I got it to work, and the customer was very pleased, but I was ashamed of the code I wrote, because I felt like I had to write it like I was a contortionist. I was fortunate in that I'd had prior experience with other platforms where the architecture was more sane, so that I didn't think this was a "good design." After that experience, I left the industry. I've been trying to segue into a different, more sane way of working with computers since. I don't think any of my past experience really qualifies, with the exception of some small aspects and experiences. The key is not to get discouraged once you've witnessed works that put your own to shame, but to realize that the difference in quality matters, that it was done by people rather like yourself who had the opportunity to put focus and attention on it, and that one should aspire to meet or exceed it, because anything else is a waste of time.
This is why "the objects of the future" have to be ambassadors that can negotiate with other objects they've never seen. Think about this as one of the consequences of massive scaling ...
Sounds pretty much like the problem of establishing contact with an alien civilization. Definitely set theory, prime numbers, arithmetic and so on... I guess at some point, objects will be equipped with general intelligence for such negotiations if they are to be true digital ambassadors!