David Barbour <dmbarb...@gmail.com> writes: > On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 1:23 PM, Pascal J. Bourguignon < > p...@informatimago.com> wrote: > > David Barbour <dmbarb...@gmail.com> writes: > > > On Apr 14, 2013 9:46 AM, "Tristan Slominski" < > > tristan.slomin...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >> A mechanic is a poor example because frame of reference is > almost > > irrelevant in Newtonian view of physics. > > > > The vast majority of information processing technologies allow > you to > > place, with fair precision, every bit in the aether at any > given > > instant. The so-called "Newtonian" view will serve more > precisely and > > accurately than dubious metaphors to light cones. > > What are you talking about??? > > > I don't know how to answer that without repeating myself, and in this > case it's a written conversation. Do you have a more specific > question? Hmm. At a guess, I'll provide an answer that might or might > not be to the real question you intended: The air-quotes around > "Newtonian" are because (if we step back in context a bit) the > context is Tristan is claiming that any knowledge of synchronization > is somehow 'privileged'. (Despite the fact nearly all our technology > relies on this knowledge, and it's readily available at a glance, and > does not depend on Newtonian anything.) > > And I've seen Grace Hopper's video on nanoseconds before. If you > carry a piece of wire of the right length, it isn't difficult to say > where light carrying information will be after a few nanoseconds. :D
I think that one place where "light cone" considerations are involved is with caches in multi-processor systems. If all processors could have instantaneous knowledge of what the views of the other processors are about memory, there wouldn't be any cache coherence problem. But light speed, or information transmission speed is not infinite, hence the appearance of light cones or "light cones"-like phenomena. -- __Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/ A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}. _______________________________________________ fonc mailing list fonc@vpri.org http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
