Perilous Resonance
[a blog by William Z Chadwick]
You can start here:
[Reflections on human worth, neurodivergence, violence, conflict resolution, truth and forgiveness.]
[In a sense, this is a sort of phenomenological journal about tech, ethics, prayer and language.]
[As SK might say if this were his blog, “whether you check it out or do not check it out, either way you will regret it.”]
[Here is my GoFundMe, for helping me write my book and learn to code to provide for my family]
My Latest Posts
- 596. A Utopia Against The Cult of PowerThe human (Federation) utopia, or near-utopia, which we find in the Star Trek lore is a great example of how modern Western secularism is a subset of liberal protestant theology. It is accepted that there are struggles and so on, but that we will work together with grace and accountability for the good of all.Continue reading “596. A Utopia Against The Cult of Power”
- 595. To be unhappy for others?“I was willing to give up my life for Saki; why wouldn’t I be willing to give up my happiness for her?” Bones, season 4, episode 23, “The Girl in the Mask” — In Japanese cultural context, to the extent it is still a non-modern-western culture, this is another good exemplar of the difference betweenContinue reading “595. To be unhappy for others?”
- 594. Fading Academic StudiesSome people seem to think that the academic field of “English” (with all it entails) is fading out of relevance, use, or meaningful practice. That’s all debatable, of course, but it just occurred to me all the ways that it actually isn’t hard to imagine computer science following the same path. This will sound implausibleContinue reading “594. Fading Academic Studies”
- 593.It is significant, in its way, that the original “bug” in Computer Science was a literal bug. The physicality of it is not without it’s assurances.
- 592. Tidbit on The Autonomy Project, Statistics, TheologyFrom Jonah Goldberg’s Newsletter: “Karl Marx is simply the most famous of the first—but not the last—generation of experts and intellectuals who believed they now had the tools to do the things they thought God would do if He existed or actually cared about the organic mass of humanity called “society.”” — This is accurateContinue reading “592. Tidbit on The Autonomy Project, Statistics, Theology”
- 591.As Gries said: “The main property that we single out, once a procedure is written, is what it does; the main property that we omit from consideration is how it does it.” In other words, yes, as someone else* said to me, a good abstraction “f-ing works.” *(I leave them anonymous because I don’t knowContinue reading “591.”
- 590. Algorithms and Faith— “a finite number of steps” In computer science, in every text I’ve read so far, algorithms are defined more or less as a finite number of steps to take to reach a certain goal. If an algorithm does not terminate, or does not have a finite number of steps*, then it is not consideredContinue reading “590. Algorithms and Faith”
- 589. David Gries on AbstractionA Few Comments The following excerpt is taken from The Science of Programming, by David Gries, chapter 12, “Procedure Calls,” pages 149-150 (published as a member of Springer-Verlag’s Texts and Monographs in Computer Science, 1981). According to books.google.com, “This [Gries’ book] is the very first book to discuss the theory and principles of computer programmingContinue reading “589. David Gries on Abstraction”
- 588.One way to briefly summarize the last post: The fact that a system, such as a car, can malfunction, means that what a system does is not actually always it’s purpose. To deny this, to assert the principle too strongly, is to say that malfunctions don’t ever occur.
- 587. Ethical Reflections on “The Purpose of a System is What it Does”“The purpose of a system is what it does.” There is a real wisdom in this saying (also, “POSIWID”), which has come up yet again because I’m reading this blog post by the husband of one of the leads on a coding learning resource I love (The Grasshopper App). How to balance the wisdom inContinue reading “587. Ethical Reflections on “The Purpose of a System is What it Does””
You can find me in these places, also:
Email: perilousresonance@gmail.com
Twitter: @cardioleo
Behance (artwork): https://www.behance.net/CardioLeo
GitHub (code): https://github.com/CardioLeo?tab=repositories
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-chadwick-b6595473
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Perilous Resonance 