Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017)

Re:Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017) by stallmanite on Sunday February 02, 2020 @02:31PM (#22218829)

So philosophy is similar to software as a field in that you don’t need a bunch of equipment to get going? Maybe it’s trivial but I had never considered that fact or it’s implications before.

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Re:Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017) by refset on Sunday February 02, 2020 @02:41PM (#22218911)

My favourite computer-related quote: "programming is applied philosophy" (origin unknown, sorry!)

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Re:Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017) by therein on Sunday February 02, 2020 @03:31PM (#22219230)

I always thought, and probably not for the most solid reasons:

Math is applied philosophy and theory of knowledge.

Physics is Math applied on reality.

Chemistry is applied Physics.

Biology is applied Chemistry.

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Re:Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017) by bigbonch on Sunday February 02, 2020 @05:17PM (#22219849)

I would ammend the last two points and say Chemistry is Physics applied to physical primitives and Biology is Chemistry applied to organic phenomena or something like that.

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Re:Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017) by rxhernandez on Sunday February 02, 2020 @08:16PM (#22220674)

It could be argued that physics has nothing at all to do with math; merely, that it is a convenient and powerful tool for humans to make sense of it.

I've seen Susskind convincingly (albeit shallowly) argue that more "primitive" animals understand physics and I would be surprised if it was easy to argue that animals understand mathematics without circular logic or quick and loose definitions of what math is.

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Re:Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017) by thunderbong on Sunday February 02, 2020 @04:04PM (#22219410)

Agree. I had also thought of the sciences in that manner.

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Re:Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017) by drworm on Sunday February 02, 2020 @05:19PM (#22219859)

Which brings to mind this classic XKCD: https://xkcd.com/435/

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Re:Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017) by thunderbong on Sunday February 02, 2020 @04:11PM (#22219449)

I'm not so sure.

Of course, I have asked many philosophical questions of myself, when understanding software. This, I've noticed, especially happens when you're crossing layers. For example, between hardware / assembly, assembly / C, C / OOP.

However, considering that we have not really come up with a language with which we can communicate with computers seamlessly, I have my doubts. Because, unless we have a language, we can't really philosophize.

This could be a problem due to the interfaces we have though. Or probably, because our interfaces with computers seem to be getting broader and richer with each generation of hardware, we haven't really been able to freeze on the language through which we communicate.

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Re:Seneca on The Shortness of Time (2017) by simonh on Sunday February 02, 2020 @05:23PM (#22219878)

“What is Magic but applied philosophy?” I’m sure I’ve seen that as a quote, but I can’t find where from. Possibly Dune?

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