From: Paul Giaccone (paulg_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-07-12 07:03:12
>On Tue, Jul 11, 2006 at 10:44:50AM -0700, Sean Parent wrote:
>
>
>>Mathematicians do not have memory or complexity to deal with
>>(mathematicians don't sort) - so arguing that the lack of a rule in
>>mathematics implies that one shouldn't exist in computer science is
>>vacuous.
>>
>>
That seems to suggest that computer scientists somehow know better than
mathematicians about mathematical concepts, which is rather insulting to
mathematicians. There is a very good reason why the "rule" (actually a
relation) is absent in mathematics: namely that it cannot be defined in
a meaningful, useful way, as others have already demonstrated. If it
can't be done meaningfully in mathematics, it can't be done meaningfully
in computer science either.
Paul