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Urbit: a personal cloud computer

doc.urbit.org

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Re: Urbit: a personal cloud computer

#41

Post by randallsquared »

gojomo wrote: post #28
gfodor wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had me going in the Nock spec until "We should note that in Nock and Hoon, 0 (pronounced "yes") is true, and 1 ("no") is false. Why? It's fresh, it's different, it's new. And it's annoying. And it keeps you on your toes. And it's also just intuitively right."

Here's one possible intuition: There is one ground truth, origin, fixed point like the North Star: zero. There are an infinite number of possible falsehoods: all nonzero numbers. But Urbit chooses 1 as the canonical false.

Whoa. That does make it intuitive. :)

Re: Urbit: a personal cloud computer

#42

Post by hawkice »

sjclemmy wrote: post #34

This guy should have been a comedy writer, not (and?) a programmer. I found this whilst backtracking: http://moronlab.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/moron-lab-goals-princ...

"Comedy writer" isn't quite how I'd describe it, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned that Urbit is run by the guy who writes/wrote under Mencius Moldbug, who is perhaps one of the more controversial people to achieve internet fandom. If you read through all the archives on his site and have no opinion (probably somewhere in the "I hate him" or "I find this reasonably convincing" statistical clusters), then your sense of outrage has been diminished, I would say.

http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/

Note: I myself am unconvinced by his writings, and find him to be just another ironic instance of the ironic nature of American culture, eager to avoid the appearance of naivete by abandoning all hopes that are fragile. Do with that what you will.

Re: Urbit: a personal cloud computer

#43

Post by sz4kerto »

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6438320

I've been watching this since it's started. It has some magical atmosphere around it and you never now whether it's serious or not; whether it's a real technical project or some kind of artistic performance.

I think I have a destroyer somewhere.

Re: Urbit: a personal cloud computer

#46

Post by [deleted] »

cdcarter wrote: post #39
amelius wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what is the reason why an existing language and compiler doesn't suffice for 1 and 2? For example, Haskell and GHC took decades to become what they are now (a powerful language and compiler). It seems quite wasteful to rebuild that work. If absolutely desired, Haskell can also be converted into combinator form, and vice versa, so why not use it? Seriously.

Because it's incredibly fun to work on? It's a brilliant VM once you wrap your brain around it, and the hackers behind it got to really try something new?

[deleted]

Re: Urbit: a personal cloud computer

#47

Post by urbit »

amelius wrote: post #21

So let me get this straight. This project is going to define 1. A new computing model, similar to how combinators work. 2. A programming language which produces expressions involving these combinators. 3. An operating system built on the above. 4. A cloud computing environment built on the above. Sorry, but while interesting, this sounds a little too ambitious, even by HN standards :)

Or as I sometimes say: "on the bottom it's a new kind of math, on the top it's a new kind of social network." This is kind of shameless hype but not as much as you might think.

Sounds like a 10-year research project, right? Actually I started working on Urbit in 2002, as a sort of "unsupervised PhD thesis." I figured it'd be done by 2008 or so.

We seeded a startup last fall and are busy turning a prototype into a product. You can now write a pretty decent web app in Urbit, but it's still too raw to stand the light of day. For instance, the network works, but we often run global flag days when we shut the whole planet down and change the protocol.

One of the main problems with Urbit is that extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. If you're going to ship something this crazy, it has to work extremely well right out of the box. We had a sort of abortive non-launch last year when the project kind of got accidentally leaked, and decided we had to "unlaunch" and go back into quiet mode. I hate selling things I can't quite deliver.

Re: Urbit: a personal cloud computer

#49

Post by [deleted] »

gojomo wrote: post #31
amelius wrote: post #21

So let me get this straight. This project is going to define 1. A new computing model, similar to how combinators work. 2. A programming language which produces expressions involving these combinators. 3. An operating system built on the above. 4. A cloud computing environment built on the above. Sorry, but while interesting, this sounds a little too ambitious, even by HN standards :)

Here's an idea: maybe anyone accusing someone else of being "too ambitious" should share one of their own projects that demonstrates exactly the right level of ambition.

[deleted]
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