I recently came across a story (if that’s the right word for it) that I wrote when I was around nine years old. It presents itself as being part of a series, but I have no idea whether I wrote any of the other installments listed.
Anyway, it’s called The History of the World! and it’s … kinda strange.
The Empirical Me
I’m Roderick T. Long, Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University. I’m an Aristotelean/Wittgensteinian in philosophy and a left-libertarian market anarchist in social theory. (More about me here.) This blog, Austro-Athenian Empire, is a continuation of my earlier blog, archived here.
What’s so strange about that? It’s all just like I remember from school.
I burned all my documents written for publik schools. Down with hierarchy and authority!
The really creepy part is that the first chapter is labelled Chapter “0″.
The really creepy part is that the first chapter is labelled Chapter “0?.
Actually, I agree — having since become a confirmed ordinalist about such matters.
I burned all my documents written for publik schools.
I wrote this in 4th grade, i.e. during the period when I was in 4th grade, but I didn’t write it for 4th grade. (Not that I would have burned it if I had….)
This is awesome! What’s really surprising about your story is that you actually tried to structure it. That’s the last thing I would’ve done. I remember writing an exceptionally weird story for second or third grade for which I got a really bad mark. I wish I still had that story. It was something about a monster in the woods. I remember that, during the process of writing, I became obsessed with the word “suddendly” and the infinite possibilities it offers, plot-wise. Anyway, after getting that bad mark, I always wrote very boring stories in school which got graded pretty well…
Actually, I agree — having since become a confirmed ordinalist about such matters.
Well in programming languages people always start counting things from 0 for an assortment of reasons. Since programming languages represent the most pure application of mathematics to reality, it follows that one must always start counting from zero in such instances.
If you want more detailed analyses, the wikipedia article on arrays mentions the debate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Array#Indices_into_arraysg
And Dijstra’s reason for preferring 0-based numbering to 1-based numbering:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD08xx/EWD831.html
(The moral is that the ordinal of a number is the number of elements preceding it in the sequence, which for the first element means none!)
Since programming languages represent the most pure application of mathematics to reality
I suspect that’s the premise I don’t accept.
What really drives me is the following thought: #n of any series should be the nth of that series.
What really drives me is the following thought: #n of any series should be the nth of that series.
In that case I don’t accept the premise of using the “#” sign.
You should claim it as a sacred text and start your own religion. It’s more believable than anything Hubbard ever wrote. And then you’ll be rich, RICH as Scientologists!