Editing 1277: Ayn Random
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===Speculation=== | ===Speculation=== | ||
− | Since the primary virtue in Objectivist ethics is rationality (or, at least, "rationality" as defined by Rand: her critics argue that the conclusions she reached do not actually derive inevitably from her premises and that additional, unstated assumptions are necessary to make the system work), the implication may be that the random number generator favors rational numbers (numbers that can be written as a fraction, i.e. a quotient p/q). On the other hand, given computers cannot store | + | Since the primary virtue in Objectivist ethics is rationality (or, at least, "rationality" as defined by Rand: her critics argue that the conclusions she reached do not actually derive inevitably from her premises and that additional, unstated assumptions are necessary to make the system work), the implication may be that the random number generator favors rational numbers (numbers that can be written as a fraction, i.e. a quotient p/q). On the other hand, given computers cannot store numbers of unlimited length, it is, for all practical purposes, impossible for '''any''' real world computer random number generator to produce an irrational number - so probably not. π is an irrational number. However, a random number generator can only ever generate a number of fixed length, and any fixed-length approximation of an irrational number, such as 3.14159, is just a rational number: 3.14159 = 314159/100000, and if it can be written as a fraction, it's not irrational. Alternately, an Objectivist might argue that if the intent of the comic is to attack or mock Objectivism, then the comic inadvertently satirizes itself via the "rationality" interpretation. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== |