Reasoning with two different formal systems simultaneously—code and runtime, logical theory and model, equations and data set, spec and implementation— this ability is on the edge between advanced systematic cognition and basic meta-systematicity. https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2018/02/10/iterating-between-theory-and-code/ …
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When the relationship between two systems is taken as fixed, they act as a single, complex system. However, if their flavors are quite different, using them jointly prepares you for the leap into meta-systematicity—where the relationships between systems become open to question.
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The ability to reason about program text and runtime state simultaneously separates cut-and-paste coders from skilled hackers who can debug complex datastructure traversal algorithms, or find 100x speedups in already-tight code.
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Seductive misleading analogy: code:runtime::model:reality leads to rationalist misunderstandings on the part of expert CS folks. The runtime is *also* a formal system, and thus almost perfectly dissimilar to almost all of reality. It lacks nebulosity.
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You think you are programming a computer, but actually you are herding clouds of electrons through a knobbly 3D maze.
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The entire postmodern world is built on our astonishing ability to damp the chaotic quantum dynamics (perfect unpredictability) of an electron gas into the digital abstraction (perfect predictability) in a billionth of a second.
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Physicists often adopt a different rationalist misunderstanding of the theory/reality relationship: that it is a matter of numerical approximation. That works only in highly restricted, closely-controlled circumstances. Relevant xkcd:pic.twitter.com/zFWyMCSBPi
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Replying to @Meaningness
how can physicist not understand quantum effects? they're just another kind of computation
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