A case against Boolean logic
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A case against Boolean logic
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Re: A case against Boolean logic
#2The emphasis on applying false dichotomies to every situation, in my opinion, is what leads to the truthiness[0] inherent in modern partisan politics.
Re: A case against Boolean logic
#3An important context here is the one in which George Boole was noticing the patterns that he created an algebra out of; he was actually analysing the Chinese book I Ching... The fact that context is so lost by the amplification of what is, itself, a distillation is, as you rightly argue, the real issue. Not sure what the answer is, but it probably isn't C^* algebras.
Re: A case against Boolean logic
#4fp folks trying to reinvent probability theory is hilarious
Re: A case against Boolean logic
#5fp folks trying to reinvent probability theory is hilarious
Non-boolean logic is more than a century old.
We could bring quantum physics as a simple example of binary logic collapsing, but in programming there are countless ones.
A simple one is a table of users in SQL, where age can be `null` and not just a positive number.
For filters like "age 18" a binary answer cannot model business logic decisions on this set of data properly.
Thus SQL implements a third logic value, UNKNOWN.
Another simple example "is the room hot?".
This is by intuition a bad fit for binary logic. Even if you define "hot" as 30C it's quite clear that the problem is way too nuanced and context dependent to model with binary logic, you need more than two possible answers than yes/no.
Re: A case against Boolean logic
#6fp folks trying to reinvent probability theory is hilarious
Non-boolean logic is more than a century old. We could bring quantum physics as a simple example of binary logic collapsing, but in programming there are countless ones. A simple one is a table of users in SQL, where age can be `null` and not just a positive number. For filters like "age 18" a binary answer cannot model business logic decisions on this set of data properly. Thus SQL implements a third logic value, UN…
I took a course in advanced logic and there is actually a really broad and diverse world of them that is fascinating. Contextual logic for one.
Re: A case against Boolean logic
#7TIL there's a whole rabbithole of "why vs why not intuitionist logic":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouwer%E2%80%93Hilbert_contro...
Re: A case against Boolean logic
#8How about you demand context is always attached to "boolean logic"? Because what author is describing is just plain bait and switch, nothing related to boolean algebra.
Re: A case against Boolean logic
#9TIL there's a whole rabbithole of "why vs why not intuitionist logic": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouwer%E2%80%93Hilbert_contro...
Intuitionist logic seemed to me like a superset of regular logic. Like a generalization that gives you more choice. Like having an 8x8 board for anything instead of always playing chess. Seems like a good idea.
Re: A case against Boolean logic
#10fp folks trying to reinvent probability theory is hilarious
probability isn't the own non-boolean. analog circuits and fuzzy logic. quantum (ok yeah probabilities!), neural nets. also taking the questions angle - open ended questions.