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David Chapman
@Meaningness
, 3 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Dinner yesterday, @michael_nielsen spontaneously using his entire body to deliver a proof!

I asked if I could video because it was so cool. He graciously declined, which was a terrible loss for the science of mathematical practice. (Although understandable of course!)
@michael_nielsen Michael was explaining Euler’s proof of the formula for vertices, face, and edges of a polyhedron—and Imre Lakatos’ explanation of the nebulosity of even mathematics, and of proving as a social process:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imre_Laka…
@michael_nielsen I am hoping he will make a series of YouTube videos demonstrating and explaining how mathematics and physics are actually done.

"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."

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David Chapman
@Meaningness
I found this essay inspiring and important.

The pace of progress in science and technology has slowed, for reasons we partly understand. We also know some factors that appear to accelerate them. Learning more, and applying it, is urgent.

Many disdainful comments re @patrickc/@tylercowen: “Arrogant tech bros ignorant of the existing fields of history & sociology of science & technology, gah”

I’d like to point out some broad patterns of academic dysfunction manifesting here (🧵)
It’s easy to assume that, if there’s an academic field named after some phenomenon, the people in it are doing whatever can be done to discover things about that phenomenon, and everything known about it is taught in that field.

This is rarely true.
Read 15 tweets
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David Chapman
@Meaningness
A 🧵 on studies of formal logic as an embodied, situated, social, cultural, materially-mediated activity.

This view contrasts with:

1 formal logics as Platonic mathematical objects
2 formal logic as an innate mental capacity
🧵 inspired by @cdutilhnovaes’ _Formal Languages in Logic_, about why formality is useful. Her overall explanation of how formal rationality works is closely similar to mine in _The Eggplant_ draft, so it was exciting reading!

amzn.to/2NQNsxa
The traditional explanation for the power of logic is “expressive precision,” but the experience of attempting to use logic in AI is that it totally fails for that. Specifically, whenever it encounters nebulosity, which is the main point of Part I of _The Eggplant_.
Read 25 tweets
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David Chapman
@Meaningness
I accidentally fell down a deep rabbit hole while trying to figure out how pH meters work. I thought this would be a really nice simple example of a scientific instrument, suitable for didactic explanation as part of an exposition of the failures of logical positivism. FAIL
I mean how hard could it be to measure pH?

Turns out there are two (or more) types of meters that work on entirely different principles. That they are measuring the same thing depends on masses of theory and experimental confirmation that the user doesn’t know anything about.
It appears to be literally true that no one knows how the better type works. They use a “glass electrode” that is semipermeable to hydrogen ions. The nature of the electrode is a closely-guarded trade secret and they appear to be discovered by trial and error, not theory.
Read 6 tweets

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John Robins
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Yesterday was a little bonkers in day one of the North Carolina State Board of Elections hearing on #NC09. You can read what happened here. I’ll be in the hearing room for @nprpolitics and tweeting testimony here npr.org/2019/02/18/694…
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In case you are also chronically ill and planning for potential power outages or heat waves, here are some things I do or am considering doing for copes

Hopefully this will help someone else
It sounds weird but this dog pad is pressure activated cooling power. It requires no electricity and is reusable. (You can also make it RLY cold in the freezer.)

There are big dog sizes that work for my entire body

m.bedbathandbeyond.com/m/product/chil…
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Elizabeth de la Vega
@Delavegalaw
The reason threads like @SollenbergerRC ’s are so useful is that alleging a narrative based on known facts is what fed'l prosecutors do. 1/
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