#back to the turing machine and the lambda calculus

[rainbowtiredoftheworld]

I keep seeing software developers with my same degree, who get payed (presumably) the same as me, bragging that they copy-paste code from chatgpt, and like... Do you not have dignity? Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? The average quality of code is already abysmal, what is there to be proud in making it worse?

[biot08]

This sounds like a more extreme version of something we already have in the real world - if you have ever tried your hand at cross compiling, or trying to get two programs with different type systems to talk to one another. We have settled on ways of handling this in the real world (SOAP, JSON, others) that get the job done well enough, but I can imagine a world in which they have not gotten that far.

Now, one might argue that we do have the one secret unified theory, and we sort of do, in that there have been multiple approaches to universal computation that have shaken out as being equivalent (the ones I am most familiar with are Turing machines and the Lambda calculus). However, I think this gets around the second limitation stated, because one, it need not be limited to our super special protagonists. In fact, it can be as yet undiscovered in the world. It can also be pretty well known - but in practice, nobody falls back to using this grand unified theory because it makes magic really tedious and difficult to do.

And again, in the real world, even with this grand unified theory of computation, we still have multiple type systems that do not get along, and even multiple paradigms of programming that also do not necessarily get along! Sure, you can do so, but is it worth it?

Basically, this world of magic needs only be as annoying as our actual world of magic. It's all about trying to convince myself and reality that my symbolic definition is correct enough to actually compile cast fireball.

Fantasy setting with magic neatly organised into elemental spheres, except each magic-using culture disagrees with all the others about what the primordial elements are, what their associations and correspondences are, and even how many of them there are. Spells always interact with other spells from the same magic system as though its elemental theory is complete, consistent, and correct, but when spells from two different magic systems come into contact it all goes a bit sideways, often in ways that require flowcharts to explain. Like, you think Ground Type vs. Rock Type is bad? There are five separate, mutually exclusive spheres of magic all called "Fire". The Sylvan Confederacy's "Water" magic explodes on contact with the Empire of the Five Pillars' "Water" magic and nobody knows why.

[hydralisk98]

Pseudo-historical project about 1912 unit record equipment computation aka the "Symbolic Analyst Processor" full stack!

(above pictures emulate the looks of what this tech stack documentation and actual use may look like, still very early in the process though)

It is still coming together by my head as I write infodump notes and research various aspects of the whole time, (including the WIMP & MERN/MEAN stack) but yk, things are coming together nicely to give some milestone project mid-way between my current phase in life and the next where I go develop a fully alternative INTJ lively stack of tools. Explanations, history dives, lively reaction studies and a couple more content suggestions related to it are on the way.

Behold, the infodumps

"Top-bottom and back up workflow" 1910 / 1912 Unit Record Equipment Tabulator Computation "Bundle" Project (Pflaumen & Utalics' SymbolicAnalystProcessor)

Information Processing Language / LISP 1.5 / Bel, A-BASIC / DIBOL, Spreadsheets, Cellular Automaton, COS-310, magnetic tape storage too, TECO / VIM, Assembly, Wirebox, Tabulator, Alphanumeric Interpreter, Printer, RTTY device, Data Recording, Bulk Data Processing Indexed Cards, 60-64 entries Deque, 4K Direct-use RAM, 12K * 24 storage devices, Phonebook, Timeclock, DateTime Calendar, Programmable, Statistics, Demographics, Voting, Ledger, Journal, Logging, Rolodex, 12 Generic-use Registers & 4 Special Registers, Catalog, ~16 Keys Pad, Customized Hexadecimal Numeric Representation for "MachineCode" Hexdumps, 4*12 bits per page of data, Macros, Paracosm, may be useful for Military & Civilian Uses, Electrical Energy (and possibly incorporates some mechanical energy too), Nouns & Verbs, "Vector" XY plotter, Lambda Calculus / Panini Grammar / Universal Turing Machine Thesis, Rotors, Ural TriodeVaccumTube "Mainframe", Interactive-Use, Hypertext Interactive Video Terminal, Memex, Modem, Electric + Radio Telegraphy, Document-processing, Word-processing, Orange Plasma Touchscreen Terminal, Time-sharing, Cash Register, Bank, Automatic Teller Machine, Vending Machine, Oracle, Typewriter / Selectric, IBM 701, IBM 1440, IBM 403, IBM System/360, OpenPOWER, F#, IBM Tellum, MUD, TextWorld, solo text-adventures, Email, AIX, z/OS, Linux for IBM mainframes, Symbolic Processing System, Autocoder, modular, IBM Lotus Suite, interface with KDE or CDE, paper handling equipment, Addventure, 12-bit basic data unit as designated word, Distributed Interactive System, VeneraFS (cladogram Parade+DolDoc), GNU Hurd / MINIX3-style Microkernel, either permissive FLOSS license or public domain waiver, extensive documentation, printed illustrated booklets, music-playback, emulator / compiler / bytecode / interpreter, analog media-friendly, mostly for didactic tinkering educational uses, multilingual reconfigurable programming, HTML+CSS, Markdown, Argdown, DMA, hardware-friendly, software development environment for direct-access programmers and aesthetic designers, sub-version control system like Git, various hardware & software implementations, museum / observatory Toymaker story, constructed languages / imaginative paracosm influences around the immersive in-world lore of the "16^12" pseudo-historical setting…

Back to the point

The list is far from exhaustive or finished, as life is so much more than meets the eye. But this should be a good start to remind myself what I am working towards, a full revamp of the last ~120 years of history with much attention and care put into making it as satisfying to me as possible, despite the very probable scenario where people take the ideas and incorporate only some of such "modules" in their own workflows. Which is fine but not taking the whole package (and only specific modules) is eventually gonna be a major learning experience for me considering the reason I revamp it all beyond control freak stuff is literally to provide less exclusive / less invasive tools that anyone can learn and customize despite being very... idiosyncratic yk.

Still welcoming suggestions and constructive criticism for such big time, I hope those textual infodumps I do every so often don't bother you too much... Cya soon!

[deanpasch]

algorithmis 4.0

Taken from the one and only wiki:

"In mathematics and computer science, an algorithmis an unambiguous specification of how to solve a class of problems. Algorithms can perform calculation, data processing and automated reasoning tasks.

An algorithm is an effective method that can be expressed within a finite amount of space and time[ and in a well-defined formal language for calculating a function.

Starting from an initial state and initial input (perhaps empty), the instructions describe a computation that, when executed, proceeds through a finite number of well-defined successive states, eventually producing "output" and terminating at a final ending state. The transition from one state to the next is not necessarily deterministic; some algorithms, known as randomized algorithms, incorporate random input.

The concept of algorithm has existed for centuries; however, a partial formalization of what would become the modern algorithm began with attempts to solve the Entscheidungsproblem (the "decision problem") posed by David Hilbert in 1928. Subsequent formalizations were framed as attempts to define "effective calculability" or "effective method"; those formalizations included the Gödel–Herbrand–Kleene recursive functions of 1930, 1934 and 1935, Alonzo Church's lambda calculus of 1936, Emil Post's "Formulation 1" of 1936, and Alan Turing's Turing machines of 1936–7 and 1939. Giving a formal definition of algorithms, corresponding to the intuitive notion, remains a challenging problem."

I guess following this as it applies to being (online) joins the list of 'challenging things in life'.

I am aware that my online movements are part of a wide and deep and tall and multi-multi-dimenional thing(y).

Now you see me now you don't (and vice versa).

I read recently that the time (on average) of average people (myself included) spending time on facebook was tending to be on the decrease. Advertising being the way it is would, I guess, have raised some eyebrows (virtual ones and the literal kind). So bring out those alogo-wot-nots and push back that trend. One possibility.

Let us see this virtual Facebook space as an endless beach we chance upon - meeting people by chance and choosing and sharing by chance and choice - finding debris and pebbles, heels and feathers, flotsam and enjoying the absence of an entry fee and the ability to be here and not.

So there.

[hydralisk98]

Things to focus onto?

Braindump: { Halloween, libre software, life long learning, aesthetic creative assets, cartoons, fighting back Wilsonism, vintage soft grunge techs, 1910s, law of attraction & assomption, subliminals, autism, affirmations, Unix porn aesthetics, TempleOS, moodboards, wholesome, Portal 2, Helluva Boss, 0x10c, Servitor, INTP(-T), history, customization, handwriting, Jucika, slidesona and slideshows, civilization games, Pflaummen, Maskoch, Maskutchew, 16^12, conlangs, Black Bear, Her Camera, Klara, transfeminity, magick, witch, FreeCiv, exploration, pawnsonas, software toys, far far away future, dying universe, degenerate era future, Quake, Lisp, Tribbles, DECmate, PDP-8/E, dark pastel aesthetics, B&W, 35mm, wooden amber, Commodore, Sherman Fairchild, OUYA aesthetics, Hooven shoes, Reich, AutisticAngora, hydralisk98, trans pride, LGBTQ+, meme, CSS3 coding, HTML5 coding, C programming, retro tiny programs, Uxn, Gyo, Konrad Zuse, time travel, shapeshifting, opinions, Discord subliminal community, YouTube subliminal community, positivity, Ea-Nasir, ANSI, PETSCII, paper tape, paper cylinder worlds, collages, assembly programming, Oswald the lucky rabbit, vintage media, videostore, public library, dice, math rocks, mundane fantasy, Angora (world), Magritte, Tolkien, Vivziepop, Furudeki, content curations, compilation, video editing, vector art, photo edits, index card catalogs, zines, hardware modding, logic gates, multimedia, soft grunge, dark aesthetics yet empowering positive moods, apocalypse, documentaries, CRT, Sifteo, SEGA Dreamcast, SEGA Dreamcast VMU, Zepeto, Instagram, Tumblr, Mastodon, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia, Deviantart, Toyhou.se, Librewolf, Brave, Build2 game engine, Quake 1, ASCII, UTF-8, textmode, text art, typewriter, selectric, word processor, analog tech, living computer history museum, custom dumbphone, libre mindset, dnd, pathfinder, talespinner EU the free TTRPG system, GURPS, dungeon crawl, hex crawl, knowledge explorer, alternate history, alternative software, DIY stationnery, font making, typeface craft, dark aesthetic ladies, angelcore, webcore, monotone icons, GUI theme pack, web design, custom cursor, custom sound effects, real life photography, relaxation, affirmations, mindset detox, flat retro yet layered style, animated agents, dark colors but bright themes, Windows 3.11, NeXTSTEP, SPARC workstations, BASIC programming, Unix philosophy, Parmenides, Philosophy, studies, study, *-blr, magazines, MIDI music, creative writing, poetry, Turing machine, Lambda calculus, game modding, Neocities, Geocities archived web pages, Fish shell, Bash shell, Zsh shell, cool-retro-term, Cathode, new iMac Yellow/Mint 24", logic operators, parentheses everywhere, Python programming, C++ programming, F# programming, CTSS (OS), ITS (OS), Multics (OS), Atari-style graphic design, Ural soviet computer, bitwise operations, tiny to the core minimalism... };

Hexes Selectric:

Focus: Knowledge exploration with aesthetic slideshows

Aesthetics: Soft grunge with yet dark-ish components (Versatile theme packs with my color scheme)

[youzicha]

No! This is one of those misconceptions that just won't die. (Bob Harper complains about it in this blog post, quoting someone as saying "you can hide an elephant inside a β-reduction"). But the correct view is that the variable substitutions are constant time.

The problem is that if you write a lambda calculus interpreter in the most naive way, then the beta-reductions would take time to scan over the entire expression to be substituted into. But if you use lambda-expressions as a model for real computer programs, then you should also imagine that they are compiled and executed by a normal compiler, as they would be in reality. In that case, a CBV-order β-reduction corresponds to a function call, and of course function calls are done in constant time.

You can formalize this as a "cost model" for CBV evaluation, which says that the expression f(e) will take time 1+cost(f)+cost(e)+cost(function body) to evaluate. You can prove once and for all that this cost model is accurate with respect to compiling the lambda expressions to a lower-level machine, and then forget about the compilation and just think about things at the level of the source language.

(Also note that this is another argument why lambda calculus is better than Turing machines: the cost of evaluating lambda expressions correspond up to some constant factor to how long the program would take in real life. That's not the case if you encode things into Turing machines, since the machine will then need to scan back and forth across the tape, so it is asymptotically slower.)

might start cultivating prejudice against Turing machines and their stupid ass tape, call them tapeworms or something

[hydralisk98]

Otherwise weird remarks from myself.

I own this character and yes I really chose to dither + quantize it myself to my liking because crusty pixels is nice.

It is cool to observe abstract syntax trees in the wild...

When I observe the world surrounding me, I try my best to see extruded sectors & tree-like data blocks out of every geometric structure I see.

Never feels old to reconsider everything I do every step of the way to optimize such like there's no tomorrow.

Yep, time to revive or at least re-experience things that died eons ago, like mainstream Syndicalism, the "Prosperity" Landlord Game's revised ruleset or actually physical Lisp Machines

Neat, things are going quite well for my writing onto my very own 12-bit CPU design specifications. Of course, not without a proper public domain waiver in due time...

Another day, another contribution to libre culture and FOSS.

Yeah, I really should tinker more often with hardware, ain't I?

Never forget that Unit Record Equipment came long before your silicon circuits.

Yeah, I really like how you can unite Panini grammar, Lambda Calculus (Alonzo Church) and Universal Turing Machines under the same 1-dimensional data structure / construct template... How nice!

It is very understandable you don't expect much from me and I don't blame you, however you just see the tip of the iceberg with most likely heavily tinted sight, and you go onto double standards as well... (for my father)

Oftentimes, I really feel like a transistor. I just select one bit of data at a time but boy am I useful to the rest of the circuit anyway. Also trans rights are human rights. Go figure.

Why on Earth did Mexico went back to Christian values in government... *checks Wikipedia pages* Oh, that's quite a sad disappointment for history. (especially over the failure of Emiliano Zapata)

Honestly, the fact (almost where-ever in the 2020s) Conservatives continuously fail to operate great as a long-term movement, religious or not, is quite a masochistic Wilsonist trend for them to persist onto... How sick are such elites, ain't them?

If it was my job to rule as a non-liberal, I would work onto systemic issues of both sides of the debate (especially encouraging smaller businesses, rural communities and indigenous peoples to be actually listened and respected fully) and cater to make something better with constructive historical roots still. It must be possible and it deserves to be done now, whatever the backlash is.

I mean, history is not everything under the sun ever either but still is a treasure trove of indications and track record to learn from.

And yes, I really try my best to stand by my ethos and it works quite well for the most part. Not 100% but let me have some space to breathe here, we are empathetic sapients here.

So yep, I am trying my best to navigate the waves of my mood-swings and all. Hopefully you like my blog enough to leave constructive feedback. No pressure, simply a suggestion for those who care.

[hydralisk98]

Another day in the snow, another content compilation

Welcome to our autistic hivemind of Neue Geo-Syndicalists (or Geo-Syndies for short) fellow comrades, today we shall get started with some Shoshoni Union memes. Typical Olive's fair except we start with writing constructive wishes into our lists to manifest our way to glory. Adn then the silly cool stuff.

We shall start with one such avid list of wishes to manifest, mine ofc, for early January to late April 2023:

And the list of tween clips to produce too!

Snow Miku going back and forth between Half-Life 3's Borealis ship & the Bismarck warship from World War 2

Wolfenstein The New Order + Alien Isolation pandemic lockdown, alienating politic infestation & nuclear hellfire

Portal 2 far away future meets further far far away future of 16^12.

Cyberpunk 2077 & X-Men gets infected by a timewise virus from centuries ahead

Halo 2, Halo Reach, Destiny & Marathon being absolute meme material thanks to the Arbiter

Monopoly and the other retro classic games from Hasbro gets owned by the Landlord's Game and actual linguistics (question markers, Lambda Calculus / Universal Turing Machine and Panini grammar automata lol).

Terminator exterminator AIs got some very loose ends, meets far superior Rogue Servitor grid and gets squished.

Wilsonism gets prevented by a time travelling agent and they manifest their way to a improvement of a timeline.