On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 12:35:12AM -0800, David Brown wrote: > Newtonian physics are incorrect, but special relativity would be a terrible > place to start in an introductory physics class.
You could explain Newtonian physics with problem solving algorithms. (Sussman gives an example in that video.) You could do the same with relativity. It has nothing to do with the accuracy of the physics theory but just communicating said theory correctly. > But, something much deeper than all of this is that Scheme/Python are going > to be limited to representing things that are computable. There's a lot of > things about the world that aren't computable. A lot of reality deals with > uncomputable things, and you cannot explain these in a programming > language. > > Think about G?del. I'm well aware of Godel. You would not have complete knowledge of all truth in a system but you would know precisely how to computer all computable truth in the system. Besides, current teaching methods don't give you complete Godel transcending understanding either. Sussman is just proposing an improvement to current teaching methods. Chris -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
