Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!im4u!ut-sally!nather From: nather@ut-sally.UUCP (Ed Nather) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Language illiteracy Message-ID: <11526@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: 7 May 88 22:22:44 GMT References: <786@trwcsed.trwrb.UUCP> <8088@ames.arpa> <765@l.cc.purdue.edu> <1940@uoregon.uoregon.edu> Distribution: na Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas Lines: 31 In article <1940@uoregon.uoregon.edu>, markv@uoregon.uoregon.edu (Mark VandeWettering) writes: > Mathematics suffers from exactly the same problems as > programming languages: ideas get muddled in notation. It's much worse than that. The basic notation -- and therefore the thought processes it fosters -- describes a system of "eternal truth", usually shown by the equals sign ( = ). It not only says stuff on each side is equivalent; it implies it always has been, and always will be. Whatever process change is needed must be artificially imposed from outside. At one time mathematicians honestly believed they were manipulating, and discovering, basic truths about the universe. "God is a mathematician." Truth was eternal (like the universe itself). Unfortunately, Goedel smashed the first idea, Hubble the second. Change is far more universal than stasis. Turing was, I think, the first to realize the enormous power of the simple concept embedded in i <- i + 1 which is, confusingly, often written as i = i + 1 but when it is, at least it negates the idea that truth cannot be changed. -- Ed Nather Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin {allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather nather@astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU