Don H
Posts:
86
Registered:
12/13/04
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Re: Divisor of Zero
Posted:
Apr 28, 2012 4:06 PM
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"Frederick Williams" <freddywilliams@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:4F9AFD10.23AC8AA8@btinternet.com...
> DonH wrote:
>
>> [...]
>> I was reprimanded in
>> primary school because I came up with an answer without stating the
>> "units"
>> I was dealing with, ie. the actual objects counted.
>
> What was the problem? If you were shown a fruit bowl with just three
> apples in it, and the teacher asked 'what is in this bowl?' and you
> answered 'three' instead of 'three apples', then the teacher was right.
>> [...]
>> A compound sentence might consist of two statements, one true and
>> one
>> false, but this doesn't make the whole false - or it wouldn't in a court
>> of
>> law, which tends to analyse components.
>
> Let's say the true statement is T and the false one F. Choose whichever
> T and F suit you. Consider the compound sentences
>
> T and F. T or F. If T then F. If F then T. Not T and F. Etc.
>
> In some cases the whole is false, in some cases it is true. In some
> cases common usage won't be able to decide one way or the other.
>
>> The sentence is partly true, and partly false. Can computers
>> accommodate that?
>
> Yes. Don't forget: computers are cleverer than you are.
>
# A binary computer is (a) quicker at calculating than any human, and (b)
can number-crunch a large mass of data. Apart from that a computer is
blind, and purely mechanical. When it "spell-checks" it can't tell one word
from another, except by binary comparisons.
A computer obeys the Rules, and its only demand is : (i) rules be reduced
to a binary equivalent, and (ii) they be unambiguous.
Only when computers are given sensory attributes will they be truly able
to define and classify and generalise.
"What was the problem? If you were shown a fruit bowl with just three
apples in it, and the teacher asked 'what is in this bowl?' and you answered
'three' instead of 'three apples', then the teacher was right."
If I had answered "apples" then the teacher could not cavil, except about
enumerating them; hence, quality has precedence over quantity.
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