A Computing Koan
In the city of the Sacred Serpent, Master Foo was holding court with his engineering students.
"The ways of the industry, my children, are very different from the way of the school", said the Master.
"But Master, we do computing in the classroom, and we will be doing computing in the Industry when we graduate in a few months' time. What is the real difference?", asked an acolyte.
"The differences are myriad, my children. But let me distill the essential differences into a single anecdote"
The Master continued,
Not far from here in space and time, a class of 50 novices like yours was given a computing exercise. The exercise was to compute the value of Pi to ten decimal places. Children worked hard, trying out different algorithms, and trying to produce the most elegant code ever written. At the end of the prescribed time, the Teacher, checking the output of the 50 programs, found the following:
Seven students could not solve the problem at all
Three students, getting confused between Pi and Phi, and had computed the Golden Mean instead of Pi.
20 students obtained the value of Pi correct up to eight decimal places, but incorrect thereafter.
18 students obtained the value of Pi correct up to nine decimal places, but not the tenth.
Two students obtained the value of Pi correct to all the ten decimal places.
To the first group, the Teacher gave zero marks. She gave the next group 50 marks for trying. The next two groups got 60 and 70 marks. The last two students obtained the full 100 marks.
And all was well.
Coincidentally, at a different place, a group of new recruits to the industry was given the same computing test at the end of their induction programme. The inductees were in high spirits, as they were approaching the end of their training, and would be professionals shortly.
Coincidentally again, the results of the Pi computing test was the same, with two engineers obtaining all decimal places right.
On the spot, the management fired the 48, and gave a bonus to the two who completed the task. For, the two represented revenues for the company, while the 48 were just cost.
"Therefore, remember this, my children: In the Industry, There Are No Marks for Trying.", concluded the Master.
"But sir," a student asked, "Of these two, which is the really, really the right way?"
"Moo", said Master Foo.
At this, the students were enlightened.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Meso-reality and the Special-case God
The universe is a single unified reality. Nevertheless, it is sometimes useful to consider the universe to be comprised of a continuum of realities, stretching all the way from cosmic reality on the one hand to quantum mechanical reality on the other.
At the massive level, cosmic reality depends on such things as the speed of light being relative to the observer and the curvature of spacetime. At the other extreme, quantum mechanics represents a different reality where deterministic cause-effect relationships vanish and discernible particles crumble into probabilistic clouds.
Both these extreme realities are difficult to grasp for the ordinary human being. This essay attempts to explain why.
Human beings, in course of their early evolution, had to create a mental model of the universe in order to engage with it. This reality, which I call meso-reality (or "middle" reality), is a substantially simplified form of absolute reality and very much subject to the physics of earth itself in terms of parameters such as physical scale (not too big nor small), gravity (just right to retain an atmosphere), temperature (not too hot nor cold), and composition of elements (just the right mix for carbon/water based life). In meso-reality, time and space are orthogonal, time is directional and cause-effect relationships are clear, predictable and repeatable.
Meso-reality has helped humankind negotiate its way through history and in explaining and dealing with the world around us. It pervades our thought, language, most sciences and arts. Meso-reality is simple and common sense-based, and can be readily understood by the man-on-the-street. However, in order to be reasonably simple, meso-reality presents a vastly oversimplified view of reality.
Up until the early 20th century, humankind did not consider that other realities could exist. However, the Special Theory of Relativity laid the ground for a new model for the fabric of reality that was shocking to many. By the middle of the 20th century, it was increasingly evident -- at least to the physicists, mathematicians, and cosmologists -- that there were other realities.
However, these other realities needed a special language for modeling them--the expressive and universal language of mathematics. The language of meso-reality is too insufficiently expressive to represent or deal with these other realities. Trying to represent other realities in meso-reality language is as absurd as trying to write a treatise on Theology in a 'language' such as Java, as Java is completely inappropriate for the purpose, having been designed for writing object-oriented computer programmes.
This brings us to the inevitable conclusion that it would be impossible to present commonsensical views of alternative realities, as these would seem fundamentally counterintuitive to the ordinary person. The 'common man' is therefore not destined to understand alternative realities in their fullest sense. It is only with sufficient grounding in mathematics that these realities be represented, explained or taught.
Mathematics is thus a universal language: if we were to encounter a civilization from a planet of a very different size -- where gravity, scale and chemical composition would be very different from ours -- the physics of life would be radically different, but the mathematics of reality would be identical. While meso-reality is specific to local physics, the mathematical abstractions of reality are universal and absolute.
If meso-reality represents a truncated, oversimplified, special-case model of the universe, then it would follow that many of the intellectual artifacts of meso-reality would have no universal value or utility.
In particular, the concept of a universal creator--a popular idea within the framework of meso-reality--would seem to have no role in absolute reality. While it is true that the mathematics of cosmic origin, the Big Bang, is perhaps still not complete (especially that of the first few ticks after the initial singularity), it is, however, clear that there is no 'God factor' in the equations. The concept of an omnipotent universal creator is a consequence of the special-case scenario of meso-reality, and has no relevance outside it. God is as 'real ' as meso-reality.
[15:00 - 16:00, 16 October 2007]
At the massive level, cosmic reality depends on such things as the speed of light being relative to the observer and the curvature of spacetime. At the other extreme, quantum mechanics represents a different reality where deterministic cause-effect relationships vanish and discernible particles crumble into probabilistic clouds.
Both these extreme realities are difficult to grasp for the ordinary human being. This essay attempts to explain why.
Human beings, in course of their early evolution, had to create a mental model of the universe in order to engage with it. This reality, which I call meso-reality (or "middle" reality), is a substantially simplified form of absolute reality and very much subject to the physics of earth itself in terms of parameters such as physical scale (not too big nor small), gravity (just right to retain an atmosphere), temperature (not too hot nor cold), and composition of elements (just the right mix for carbon/water based life). In meso-reality, time and space are orthogonal, time is directional and cause-effect relationships are clear, predictable and repeatable.
Meso-reality has helped humankind negotiate its way through history and in explaining and dealing with the world around us. It pervades our thought, language, most sciences and arts. Meso-reality is simple and common sense-based, and can be readily understood by the man-on-the-street. However, in order to be reasonably simple, meso-reality presents a vastly oversimplified view of reality.
Up until the early 20th century, humankind did not consider that other realities could exist. However, the Special Theory of Relativity laid the ground for a new model for the fabric of reality that was shocking to many. By the middle of the 20th century, it was increasingly evident -- at least to the physicists, mathematicians, and cosmologists -- that there were other realities.
However, these other realities needed a special language for modeling them--the expressive and universal language of mathematics. The language of meso-reality is too insufficiently expressive to represent or deal with these other realities. Trying to represent other realities in meso-reality language is as absurd as trying to write a treatise on Theology in a 'language' such as Java, as Java is completely inappropriate for the purpose, having been designed for writing object-oriented computer programmes.
This brings us to the inevitable conclusion that it would be impossible to present commonsensical views of alternative realities, as these would seem fundamentally counterintuitive to the ordinary person. The 'common man' is therefore not destined to understand alternative realities in their fullest sense. It is only with sufficient grounding in mathematics that these realities be represented, explained or taught.
Mathematics is thus a universal language: if we were to encounter a civilization from a planet of a very different size -- where gravity, scale and chemical composition would be very different from ours -- the physics of life would be radically different, but the mathematics of reality would be identical. While meso-reality is specific to local physics, the mathematical abstractions of reality are universal and absolute.
If meso-reality represents a truncated, oversimplified, special-case model of the universe, then it would follow that many of the intellectual artifacts of meso-reality would have no universal value or utility.
In particular, the concept of a universal creator--a popular idea within the framework of meso-reality--would seem to have no role in absolute reality. While it is true that the mathematics of cosmic origin, the Big Bang, is perhaps still not complete (especially that of the first few ticks after the initial singularity), it is, however, clear that there is no 'God factor' in the equations. The concept of an omnipotent universal creator is a consequence of the special-case scenario of meso-reality, and has no relevance outside it. God is as 'real ' as meso-reality.
[15:00 - 16:00, 16 October 2007]
What is Moo?
Zen Buddhism is a unique faith inasmuch as it can live comfortably with contradictions. The Zen answer to a question that cannot be answered straight is 'Moo' (also spelled 'Mu'), a word that means 'nothing' or 'your-question-cannot-be-answered-as-it-is- based-on-incorrect-assumptions'.
A monk asked Joshu: "Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?"
Joshu answered: "Moo."
"Have you stopped beating your wife?"
"Moo!"
A monk asked Joshu: "Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?"
Joshu answered: "Moo."
"Have you stopped beating your wife?"
"Moo!"
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