From Gary King's unCLog:
If a child says that "he could jump to the moon if his legs were strong enough", we smile. Is this the same as "if we knew the initial conditions with enough accuracy, we could predict..."?
From Gary King's unCLog:
If a child says that "he could jump to the moon if his legs were strong enough", we smile. Is this the same as "if we knew the initial conditions with enough accuracy, we could predict..."?
The following quote is a match for my argument that by refusing to accept the task of establishing an underlying theory, a metamodel or ontology, of "integrated" models, efforts such as the HarmonIT project severely limit their long term value.
Find a scientific man who proposes to get along without any metaphysics -- not by any means every man who holds the ordinary reasonings of metaphysicians in scorn -- and you have found one whose doctrines are thoroughly vitiated by the crude and uncriticized meta physics with which they are packed. We must philosophize, said the great naturalist Aristotle* -- if only to avoid philosophizing. Every man of us has a metaphysics, and has to have one; and it will influence his life greatly. Far better, then, that that metaphysics should be criticized and not be allowed to run loose.
Every simulation code, every modelling system and tool, unavoidably embeds a set of assumptions about the nature of models and of the modelled systems. These inevitably vary to a greater or lesser degree between such systems. Blind coupling leads inevitably towards increasing inconsistency, with all of the cognitive load and risk implied by that.
This reconfirms my belief that writing a test suite tests not only an implementation, but also a specification. Untestable requirements are bugs. [pfdietz]
"One serious obstacle to the adoption of good programming languages is the notion that everything has to be sacrificed for speed. In computer languages as in life, speed kills." [Mike Vanier, quoted in the OCaml tutorial, linked from Andrew Birkett's blog via Lispmeister]
"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." [André Gide, via Seb Paquet]
Another key to successful software is that it is hackable. He explained, "when people hack, they show us where technology wants to go. Make your apps hackable. The manufacturer didn't support this but I want this. A lot of software progressions worth tracking start with hacks. [Tim O'Reilly]
An invention has to make sense in the world where you finish building the invention, not the one in which you start building it. [Ray Kurzweil]
Long ago Dad introduced me to a quote, which he believes to have been first uttered by a head of the AI group at the University of Edinburgh.
Artificial it may be, Intelligence it most certainly isn't. [Source unknown]
I have in the past found Google to be quite effective at locating sources of quotes for me. In this case it is of no assistance whatsoever. If anyone has any leads on this, I'd love to know. If not, you heard it here first.
Spread your wings and fly, little meme.
Wow.
The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. [Edwin Schlossberg Quotes - The Quotations Page]
When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. [C. P. Snow - The Quotations Page]
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