-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 06/03/2013 03:04 PM, Bharath Chari wrote: > On Monday 03 June 2013 05:07 PM, Alaric Snell-Pym wrote: >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >> Hash: SHA1 >> >> On 06/01/2013 10:26 AM, Bharath Chari wrote: >>> The first time I read this story by Isaac Asimov, I hadn't been >>> introduced to computers yet. The second time I read it I wondered to >>> myself in horror if such a day would actually come. I read it again >>> yesterday, and was filled with dismay. That day may well have already >>> come. >> Which bit dismays you? The rising dependence on computers for rote >> arithmetic, or the militarisation that led the technician to commit >> suicide? >> > Is rote arithmetic what you got from the story? Because I got > mathematics. And that's my problem - suicidal technician > notwithstanding. I don't have a problem with using any form of > computational device, provided the basics behind the answer are > understood. Mathematical Induction, anyone?
I think the story was a bit vague on just how much of mathematics had been lost. They still seemed to have mathematicians who knew what multiplication, division, square roots, etc. *meant*, even if these operators had just become magic black boxes to them in terms of implementation. So I'm presuming that more abstract concepts such as induction and proof had survived! I think that this certainly implies a lesser understanding of what those things mean (as I see it, the generalisation of things like square roots into funny domains such as GF(2^N) is best understood by thinking about how they are actually implemented over the complex numbers), though! > > Bharath > ABS - -- Alaric Snell-Pym http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/alaric/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJRrKnAAAoJENVnbn/DjbpJm2MQAI5r9M9zhN9H7uJEbJx1i6ze KcirVkIBPAT/ipJVN/5QLfcuCGKeWQ5qBbaIcQ4MDxeYqI4+JGcVzeFdC7c+dAHF YRQUSwefuf0xiV0VAWSiAmC/dL9HANyeib/666gijJW0NO7NPc4wB7apigCgOMe7 b6vdBGoxPN8tVkskiDlATNJv1djKQb36zOFiFyLamB0XZZTnB3Q2yXm8P0y/2a1Q 8g7qSd4A3Dpq+9Y8m5FxGpjnjZ/Xa006jGCwvEIffU15M6mJOYtix2mcp5Rfzs0C rmJxr5c6qWHFlHVWsTH3Wm1BETovG4647iEQmfLSd3YLbOwDW3QSejYweYqq5klJ qSN/LWJw8JTqcopjaOPbOUfW/USgijmFM+Uv5yA+AEWVrzUZTE+J68cknDfx/kvy /F8WFN53nw2+XzjLkABS4OZy1VBAuyPMs0sH1K6/gLoOJZ9ZwnfvYvvfh42aykP+ S7LiUD5ZkCXqJqOW7u8J3dnf4SxP3LElQ4CMVUJ5abMOsaXSWO4K4rhTYnk9Ib3i 7iUBmHwbqEz3c0j4dlquu0czumbT9JiyIjla1IiOMjDkaD6KozL4mF7WXyTGhONu hltj5n8i4LN2s8UnSDJWeNsK9o1P/vpM8i+6f7jHmI84MlExW+NFSTN35q4XBSLx PKlORQfrG7FcCyCJOJ/W =TL92 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
