64 pointsby cjamsonhna day ago3 comments

skyberrysa day ago
I was glad to discover this is an analogy to electrical circuits further down the page. It's a good topic to understand, the write-up is comprehensive.
jopolous21 hours ago
> They are the only man-made technology in history that we don’t fully understand from first principles
…what? What about bicycles? Ice skates? General anesthetics? I feel like there are a ton of commonly-used man-made items we don’t fully understand from a first-principles perspective.
Am I missing something here?
- doctoboggan19 hours ago
  No, I don't think you are missing anything. Only recently have engineers been inventing things from "first principles". I think for the majority of human civilization we've mostly invented and improved through trial and error.
  - jareklupinski9 hours ago
    yea all of modern semiconductors were built on a guy going "wouldnt it be cool if i could write using metal instead of ink"
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czochralski_method
  - willis93615 hours ago
    How many computing or mathematical constructs fall into that category? You don't accidentally land on a new algorithm typically.
    The author shouldn't have discussed inventions when the nugget is about "original thought".
openclaw01a day ago
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