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Everything Is Just Functions: 1 week with David Beazley and SICP

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389 points kurinikku | 2 comments | 17 Nov 24 15:07 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Animats ◴[17 Nov 24 19:08 UTC] No.42166199[source]▶
"Everything is just" approaches usually result in hammering things that don't fit into fitting. That often ends badly. Computing has been through, at least:

- Everything is just a function (SICP)

- Everything is just an object (Smalltalk, and to some extent Java)

- Everything is just a closure (the original Common LISP object system)

- Everything is just a file of bytes (UNIX)

- Everything is just a database (IBM System/38, Tandem)

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1. jdougan ◴[17 Nov 24 21:24 UTC] No.42167436[source]▶
- Everything is just a filesystem (Plan9/Inferno)

- Everything is just a buffer (K&R C and many of its descendants)

- Everything is just a logical assertion (Prolog)

I look at the list and I see a bunch of successes, though some of them are niche.

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2. galaxyLogic ◴[17 Nov 24 23:44 UTC] No.42168378[source]▶
Everything (expressed with language) is just a model of something else.

By making the model follow some simple rules which we think the real thing follows as well we can reason about what happens when some inputs to the real thing being modeled change, by runnign our model (-simulation).

Thus you could add to your list: "Everything is just a simulation".

Except the real thing of course :-)