There is a cute mathematical paradox that goes as follows:
The vocabulary of the English language, while undoubtedly vast, has finitely many words; hundreds of thousands perhaps, but still only finitely many. The number of English phrases with less than seventeen words is therefore finite as well. But there are infinitely many natural numbers (i.e. numbers of the type 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ...) so not all of them can be described by English phrases of less than seventeen words. Some can be --- e.g. 6 can be described by the phrase "six" or by the short phrase "one plus five" --- but some just can't. The principle of mathematical induction tells us then that among all the natural numbers which cannot be expressed in less than seventeen words there is one which is the smallest. That is, there is the smallest natural number which cannot be described by English phrases of less than seventeen words. But wait! Hold on... Counting the words in italics we see that we just managed to describe that number in sixteen words!
How did that happen? The culprits here are the manners in which we used the English language. Indeed, "manners" in plural because we used English in two ways: in a low-level to talk about numbers and in a higher meta-level to discuss the system of numbers.
Other mathematical paradoxes (e.g. Russell's famous paradox) stem from similar dual usage of languages, in low- and meta-levels.
Mankind has long ceased to participate passively in the process of evolution. We have been breeding dogs, genetically modifying plants, transplanting hearts, and much more. Our reach is no longer confined to within the bounds of the evolution system; we have increasingly been manipulating the evolution system itself.
I don't know about you but I hear the music of paradoxes. And at least in Math this music rings trouble.
Zzzzz...
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Inflation
When I moved to the US after college all my stuff fit into a large backpack. That was 16 years ago; the recent move from Massachusetts to California required a full blown moving truck.
If my household belongings were a stock, the return on investment would have been phenomenal.
During the last couple of months I've been living in temporary housing with just a few boxes of stuff; the entire cargo of that moving truck is waiting patiently in a storage facility. Interestingly I've been doing pretty well with the few items I have with me: I miss only a handful of the stored goods.
If my household belongings were a stock, it would have been a bubble.
Zzzzz...
If my household belongings were a stock, the return on investment would have been phenomenal.
During the last couple of months I've been living in temporary housing with just a few boxes of stuff; the entire cargo of that moving truck is waiting patiently in a storage facility. Interestingly I've been doing pretty well with the few items I have with me: I miss only a handful of the stored goods.
If my household belongings were a stock, it would have been a bubble.
Zzzzz...
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Ice Cream Wars
Imagine a beach on a hot steamy day. People are scattered uniformly along the beach, and on this hot sunny day they could really use a chilling and soothing treat. Luckily two ice cream vendors show up, loaded with goodies. We can call the vendors Ben and Jerry, or Haagen and Dazs, but let's call them Donkey and Elephant; no harm in that.
Donkey and Elephant establish positions on the beach, and customers start flowing. It quickly turns out that both carry the exact same merchandise and sport identical prices. With quality and price being equal, customers choose the closest ice cream vendor.
Let's examine our vendors' business opportunity. Elephant has positioned himself towards the right end of the beach. Donkey is to the left of Elephant, but still right of center. All the customers to the right of Elephant will spend their hard earned dollars at Elephant's, and those to the left of Donkey will do so at Donkey's. the customers positioned in between the two vendors will be split half and half. Hmm... Perhaps a picture can help. Let's depict Donkey's customers in blue and Elephant's customers in red; no harm in that.
Elephant soon realizes that he holds the short end of the beach. After a deep session of meditation he shifts closer to Donkey:
Sweet! Elephant starts dreaming about retirement as more coins pour into his pocket. But then, after the initial indulgence, he realizes that Donkey is still making more money than him. Unacceptable!!! He dips again into intense meditation and comes up with a daring strategy: he will venture farther left, past Donkey!
Life is good for Elephant! He is clearly the king of the beach. But what's that??? Donkey has just moved to his left, towards the center of the beach!
Donkey has regained the lead. Elphant ignores some customers and rushes left, closer to mid-beach, passing Donkey yet again...
At the end of the day our exhausted ice cream vendors have reached the only stable equilibrium: they stand back to back at the exact mid-point of the beach. The customers are split equally between the two.
The American political system is a two body problem, and is therefore rather simple from a statistical standpoint. While people are excited about one candidate or another, in the long term the democrats will win about half the elections and the republicans will win the other half. Any other solution is unstable.
Zzzzz...
(Thanks to David Meiri for the ice cream analogy)
Donkey and Elephant establish positions on the beach, and customers start flowing. It quickly turns out that both carry the exact same merchandise and sport identical prices. With quality and price being equal, customers choose the closest ice cream vendor.
Let's examine our vendors' business opportunity. Elephant has positioned himself towards the right end of the beach. Donkey is to the left of Elephant, but still right of center. All the customers to the right of Elephant will spend their hard earned dollars at Elephant's, and those to the left of Donkey will do so at Donkey's. the customers positioned in between the two vendors will be split half and half. Hmm... Perhaps a picture can help. Let's depict Donkey's customers in blue and Elephant's customers in red; no harm in that.
Elephant soon realizes that he holds the short end of the beach. After a deep session of meditation he shifts closer to Donkey:
Sweet! Elephant starts dreaming about retirement as more coins pour into his pocket. But then, after the initial indulgence, he realizes that Donkey is still making more money than him. Unacceptable!!! He dips again into intense meditation and comes up with a daring strategy: he will venture farther left, past Donkey!
Life is good for Elephant! He is clearly the king of the beach. But what's that??? Donkey has just moved to his left, towards the center of the beach!
Donkey has regained the lead. Elphant ignores some customers and rushes left, closer to mid-beach, passing Donkey yet again...At the end of the day our exhausted ice cream vendors have reached the only stable equilibrium: they stand back to back at the exact mid-point of the beach. The customers are split equally between the two.
The American political system is a two body problem, and is therefore rather simple from a statistical standpoint. While people are excited about one candidate or another, in the long term the democrats will win about half the elections and the republicans will win the other half. Any other solution is unstable.
Zzzzz...
(Thanks to David Meiri for the ice cream analogy)
Friday, January 23, 2009
Nothing But Air
This is what I'm currently holding in my hands. Yes, at these very moments, while composing this blog entry. Nothing but Air. Because earlier today I received a new laptop, a MacBook Air. It came with a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, and most importantly with an SSD instead of a hard drive.
I haven't had much run time on it so far, but initial impressions are very positive. It's faster than the black MacBook, at least for web browsing. It's slim and light like a feather. It's spiffy, and it is absolutely stunning. It's expensive, but more than worth every penny that Google paid...
Mark the day on your calendars, amigos, for today is January 1, 0001 A.MBA.
Zzzzz...
I haven't had much run time on it so far, but initial impressions are very positive. It's faster than the black MacBook, at least for web browsing. It's slim and light like a feather. It's spiffy, and it is absolutely stunning. It's expensive, but more than worth every penny that Google paid...
Mark the day on your calendars, amigos, for today is January 1, 0001 A.MBA.
Zzzzz...
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Still Looking For A New Year's Resolution?
Last week my younger son Edan told me about a movie he saw, Kung Fu Panda (warning: possible spoilers ahead). Towards the end of the movie the protagonist, a chubby panda bear named Po, receives the elusive Dragon Scroll which holds the secrets of Kung Fu. He unrolls the scroll and discovers that there is nothing but a reflective foil inside.
You see, Dad, said my young offspring, the moral of the story is that there was no special sauce; it was the lure of a powerful secret that motivated Po to believe in himself and succeed.
Hmm..., I said. That's interesting. You know, Edani, that sounds like a good lesson to life. There really are no magical silver bullets; instead of seeking powerful secrets one should focus on believing in oneself and work hard to achieve one's goals.
No, no, Dad, said my dear son. You don't understand. That was just a movie, it wasn't real!
Believing in yourself and working hard to achieve your goals are precious traits. If you have them, cherish them. If you don't, you may want to consider giving yourself these gifts. You can't buy them in a store, though; rather, you have to create them on your own. Moreover, these are recursive gifts, requiring you to believe that you can create them and to work hard to develop them.
Zzzzz...
You see, Dad, said my young offspring, the moral of the story is that there was no special sauce; it was the lure of a powerful secret that motivated Po to believe in himself and succeed.
Hmm..., I said. That's interesting. You know, Edani, that sounds like a good lesson to life. There really are no magical silver bullets; instead of seeking powerful secrets one should focus on believing in oneself and work hard to achieve one's goals.
No, no, Dad, said my dear son. You don't understand. That was just a movie, it wasn't real!
Believing in yourself and working hard to achieve your goals are precious traits. If you have them, cherish them. If you don't, you may want to consider giving yourself these gifts. You can't buy them in a store, though; rather, you have to create them on your own. Moreover, these are recursive gifts, requiring you to believe that you can create them and to work hard to develop them.
Zzzzz...
Monday, January 12, 2009
Today is Tuesday, May 15, 0001
It really is. Not A.D. (Anno Domini) or B.C. (Before Christ), but rather A.i., that is Anno iPhone. Indeed, the iPhone ushered such a profound change into my life that it split it into two: before the iPhone and after the iPhone. The Jan 1, 0001 A.i. date was set on Aug 29, 08 A.D. when this gorgeous piece of hardware became mine in exchange for (quite) a few green notes. And thus began the iPhone calendar (note that this calendar follows the usual convension of skipping the year 0000).
Sorry, Pope Gregory XIII, what goes around comes around; Steve Jobs did to you what you did to Julius Caesar.
Sic semper tyrannis!
Zzzzz...
Sorry, Pope Gregory XIII, what goes around comes around; Steve Jobs did to you what you did to Julius Caesar.
Sic semper tyrannis!
Zzzzz...
Friday, January 9, 2009
The Operating Systems War Is Over
And the winner is... The browser.
Not too long ago it mattered what operating system one was running. The different OSes ran on different hardware, had different capabilities, and hosted different applications. Today's major OSes all run on x86 machines (Linux actually supports anything that contains some silicon --- except, perhaps, for Pamela Anderson); they all provide equivalent functionality; and many applications ship on more than one OS.
Web browsers are particularly ubiquitous. The browser is the great equalizer: the more data and applications migrate to the web the less the operating system matters. On the OS highway Windows sees Linux and OS X in the side mirrors, but the flood is raining from the cloud.
In the high tech world a ruling product does not lose to the competition; rather it is eventually displaced by a new technology that simply renders it irrelevant.
Zzzzz...
Not too long ago it mattered what operating system one was running. The different OSes ran on different hardware, had different capabilities, and hosted different applications. Today's major OSes all run on x86 machines (Linux actually supports anything that contains some silicon --- except, perhaps, for Pamela Anderson); they all provide equivalent functionality; and many applications ship on more than one OS.
Web browsers are particularly ubiquitous. The browser is the great equalizer: the more data and applications migrate to the web the less the operating system matters. On the OS highway Windows sees Linux and OS X in the side mirrors, but the flood is raining from the cloud.
In the high tech world a ruling product does not lose to the competition; rather it is eventually displaced by a new technology that simply renders it irrelevant.
Zzzzz...
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