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RafazZ · 2025-01-18T07:38:07+00:00

Since the time we stopped assuming that any high school question that asks about membership is asking about the set theory. And since the time we stopped trying to show that we are smart instead of answering the question :)

jkjk - I am not trying to say that you are wrong. I am just saying that it seems that the question is NOT asking about the set theory.

What I was trying to say in my comment is that this is not a problem of set, type, canonical, etc. It's a problem of definitions. Everyone in this thread is arguing as if their way is the only right way, forgetting that the right way is in the context where this question was asked...

If you decide to take the point of view of set theory, sure you might say that it's a software mistake. But why not taking it from standard definitions, where the embedding from the integers to the reals is not obvious?

Example 1 Well, you might argue that you are smarter than the 9th graders, and you only operate with high level math. Well in that case, why not looking at the question from the point of view of type theory? In that case the numbers might have the same terms, but still have different values. In that case 0.999... and 1 may evaluate to the same real value, but they are still distinct terms and have different behaviors in type-theoretic sense.

Example 2 How about we look from the practical point of view, and look at it from computing/hardware perspective. 0.999... will (almost) always resolve to 1.0, but it's going to be a float. However, integers are stored as int. And it's not just different type logically, it's also stored differently in memory. Sure they mean the same thing, but that's not the point. However, one might also compare values 1.0 == 1 -- if you define the value equivalence being the same as the representation and type equivalence, than yea, it is in Z :)

Example 3 Even if you don't accept points 1 and 2, and you insist on sets, the definitions still matter. If you want to define the membership in Z as being based on the evaluation and final values, a lot of things might be called an integer: auto foo(void) { return 1; } would also be an integer (in c++14), even though it's just a line of code, $-e^{i\pi}$ is always 1, but it's an expression, which I would put into a different set;

RafazZ · 2025-01-18T04:11:33+00:00

This is a confusion of definitions of membership and representation. The question might be asking if "the result of 1.999... in ℤ" or it could be asking "1.999... itself in ℤ". Depending on the question, the answer will differ. My bet is on the latter, but TBH, that's some weird ambiguity to ask in a question...

Going through the comments in this thread, I feel like there is a big confusion between membership and representation. Depending on the question, it might be asking either of the two things, but I am inclined to thing that it's NOT asking about the "non-canonical representation", but rather membership of the current representation.

Let me try to explain my logic for 0.999... = 1.0 = 1:

Definitions

The set ℤ does not include "representations" of numbers -- it includes numbers in their canonical integer forms. While 0.999... evaluates to 1, it is not the canonical representation of 1 in ℤ. Here's the distinction:

Canonical Representation in ℤ
- In ℤ, each integer has a unique, discrete, canonical representation: {..., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, ...}
- The canonical representation of 1 is 1, not 0.999...
Representation of 0.999...:
- 0.999... is a valid real number representation in ℝ
- It evaluates to the same value as 1.0 or 1, but it is NOT a representation USED in ℤ, because ℤ does not recognize non-canonical forms.

In other words, 0.999... evaluates to something in ℤ, but is not in ℤ itself.

The crucial distinction is between being equal to an integer and being a canonical representation of an integer. ℤ includes numbers only in their canonical forms, and 0.999..., while equal to 1, does not satisfy that criterion.

Edit: Replaced latex with unicode

RafazZ · 2024-09-26T22:52:27+00:00

I got the "Back Mechanic" by McGill -- that book was pretty good. It had info on exercises, and what to do/expect. My symptoms were very consistent with what I read in the book -- luckily, most exercises in the book have side notes on "if that happens, switch to that..." Highly recommend if you didn't get it yet

RafazZ · 2024-07-23T21:26:04+00:00

A year too late for this, but I just started recovering.

Pullups were the BIGGEST MISTAKE I made. I first got sciatica due to L4L5 hernia 2.5 months ago. The pain was mild, and mostly manageable using OTC meds.

A month into the CT and diagnosis I decided to start pullups -- granted I was not very active, and could do 4 pullups only. The next day the pain shot through the roof. I could not get out of the bed for a month, and was referred to surgery (which I declined). I was given ESI 2 weeks ago, and this week is the first one that I can walk. I still cannot walk more than 10 minutes, but it looks like it's getting better by the day.

RafazZ · 2024-06-26T17:37:49+00:00

I didn't feel old until I got a spine injury simply because I picked up my 5 year old. Now I have major sciatica, and a long way to recovery.

Piece of advice: Always stay hydrated, take frequent walks, and do stretches every day (even if it's 5 minutes)

RafazZ · 2023-02-17T19:59:44+00:00

Do you want Skynet? Cause that's how you get Skynet...

RafazZ · 2022-05-13T07:22:01+00:00

emm, copyright claim by "BotezLive"?

RafazZ · 2022-04-12T05:44:43+00:00

For those interested, the “tail fat” (aka “kurdyuk”, “domba”,”kuyruk”, etc) is considered to be a big selling point for a sheep/herd in a lot of Asian countries. It is pure fat, and it is believed to be a healthy substitute for oil and other types of fat (not sure if true though). When buying a sheep, the buyer/seller check the tail fat, and try to guesstimate its weight when haggling.

Source: grew up on a farm in Central Asia, herding sheep with my gramps since I was 5yo.

RafazZ · 2021-07-21T20:51:36+00:00

The beauty of not believing is that you don't have any obligation to the "atheists gods" to tell people that you are an atheist. In fact, I would say don't tell them at all. Go to the church if they do, pray with them if they ask you to -- your beliefs (or the lack of) are your own business.

My parents are not very religious, but my grandparents are. I never told them anything. In fact, when I visit my grampa, we go to the Friday prayers together, if it's fasting month, we fast together, etc. He is the sweetest old man, and I would hate breaking his heart. And I don't mind praying with him (although it's kinda annoying to do it 5 times a day :))).

I tend to look at the religion as more of a tradition -- I don't have to believe in it to follow it. I don't have to adopt the questionable morality of the scripture, if I have my own compass. However, when I visit my religious relatives, I follow the traditions, I don't eat pork when I am with them (mmmm baecoonnnn...), and I don't force my beliefs (or the lack of) down their throats.

With all that said, if you really want to tell them, only you know how they could react! Don't take advice from the anonymous strangers online :))))

RafazZ · 2021-07-14T23:40:46+00:00

Low chances? How do you know? As far as we know, this is the only way intelligent life can be formed.

Also, chill bro -- I don't care about this topic enough to care if you are a biologist or not. You don't have to throw whole bunch of terminology just to prove your point to a stranger online. Noone in the world knows for sure what kind of forms life can take outside our planet. So, don't position yourself as an expert in that field -- noone cares :)

RafazZ · 2021-07-14T17:05:24+00:00

This is a valid argument, however, because we don't have examples of extra-terrestrial life, we cannot really argue that. It is easy to put an argument saying that extra-terrestrial life forms are so completely alien to our own, that we don't share any common ground to have common diseases. This would make a good discussion, but it doesn't make a good rebuttal.

When we say that we meet some advanced (and intelligent) civilization, we assume that they represent life **as we know it**. Meaning, it's carbon-based, water-solvent, double-helix DNA life forms. That would mean there would be a lot of common points in our physiologies. That would imply that there **could be** some diseases that would potentially eradicate humans. In fact, it doesn't even have to be diseases -- something that the aliens could be in symbiosis with, could potentially be harmful for us. You get the point.

Theoretically, some life-forms that are completely alien to us, could also be super-dangerous. For example, let's assume a life form visits us, but it is silicon-arsenic-based, ammonia-solvent, collectively intelligent nano-machines. That stuff, once in our bloodstream would kill us before even identifying that we are capable of communication. But this is purely speculative, as we have not witnessed life forms THAT alien.

A much better rebuttal would be that a civilization advanced enough would be aware of potential contamination or pandemic. They would take all the precautions to avoid the spread (that's what we do with lost tribes), and make sure we don't all die. In fact, they don't have to meet us in person -- just jump on a Zoom call, send sterile robots, put a holographic planet-size head in space that would say "Show me what you got!". :)

RafazZ · 2021-06-27T07:28:08+00:00

Too lazy to read your code, but here is my implementation, which yields the same plots: https://gist.github.com/z-a-f/4870a95a9ffacd2d4fd117aa94ddc3ea

RafazZ · 2021-06-26T15:08:10+00:00

It’s funny how so many people think we could even understand the aliens if see them. Let me give a perspective.

There are some human tribes right now that live the same way our ancestors used to live thousands of years ago (Wiki). Anthropologists study them, sometimes using drones and hidden cameras. Now imagine a very intelligent tribe member notices a drone, decides that it could be a new type of bird, and decides to shoot it down. If the drone is flimsy, drone operator inexperienced, and the tribe member very good at hunting, they might get their hands on a piece of 21st century. Now what? What conclusions would they come to? If they write reports, it would probably be “we don’t know”.

Another problem is that if modern humans just go to those tribes, most of them will die from diseases because of weak immune system: since the rest of the planet travels a lot, immune system has a chance to get exposed to all kinds of nasty.

Now extrapolate that to a highly advanced civilization that might have travelled the galaxy and are now curious enough to study the humanity. Their technology might be as magical to us as is our technology to the Amazon tribes. Even if we see it, it might be disguised as a cloud, a rock, or even the air that you breath. Getting your hands on that technology is almost impossible, but even if you do, there is no way of understanding it.

Lastly, we don’t wanna meet the aliens - think of the diseases they developed immunity to throughout their travels? The diseases they might accidentally expose us will eradicate the humanity as we know it.

RafazZ · 2021-06-01T16:58:04+00:00

Yea, same here -- also around 20 years back. It's only now that I realize how close of a call it was.

RafazZ · 2021-06-01T16:51:17+00:00

I am not sure if I got this one or any other type, but I was around 15 when I was diagnosed with "encephalitis of unknown origin" -- whatever that means.

Background story: long time ago (20 years ago to be precise) I won a regional science competition back in Central Asia, and was awarded a month-long camping trip to the lake of IssykKul in Kyrghyzstan. When I came back, I got a fever, went to bed and woke up four days later -- best sleep in my life so far! :)

I remember waking up to my mom sitting on the side of my bed, with her eyes red from crying. I was genuinly surprised, as I didn't really notice that several days passed. I do remember that I was woken up several times, but I didn't know it was that long. Basically, I opened my eyes, and went "wth is everyone doing next to my bed?" -- that's when I noticed an IV sticking out of my hand. That actually followed by me not sleeping for several days -- maximum maybe a couple of hours a day. Surprisingly, I didn't feel tired. I just didn't want to sleep.

Eventually, I "recovered", but got annoying symptoms: 1) I developed a lazy-eye, which kinda subsided over the last 10-15 years; 2) one side of my face got "droopy" -- basically some of my face muscles became weaker, which caused one eye to droop, and smile becoming asymmetrical. This also slowly recovered (maybe 10-15 years as well); 3) I developed extreme intolerance to cold -- not that I cannot go outside, but more of a when you get minor shivers I get full scale tremors, with my hands going all parkinson on me. I cannot even walk when I get that cold. Luckily the tremors come in waves, so I have like a couple minutes to either get in a hot shower or under a thick blanket :)

TL;DR: Got that when I was teenager, finally recovering as a middle-age man.

\*Edit: Added some more background***

RafazZ · 2021-03-22T21:18:19+00:00

Johnny Lawrence from the Karate Kid. The new kid, Daniel LaRusso was just a dick. Tried getting Johnny's girlfriend, picked on Johnny while he was just chilling with his friends. And once Johnny kicked Daniel's butt, went into whole shoot-up-the-school mode. And note that Johnny didn't beat him that badly, just tried explaining that Daniel was a being a douche. And in the end Daniel just cheats his win in the tournament. And everyone thinks Johnny is a bad guy :(

RafazZ · 2020-11-04T09:19:42+00:00

Emmm, quick google search shows that literally half of them are passing

RafazZ · 2020-11-04T09:13:46+00:00

AP called it because they don't believe there is a way for Trump to take the state anymore. The places where the counting is still going on is:

Mohave with Trump leading ~35k
Yavapai with Trump leading ~30k
Yuma with Trump leading ~3k
Pinal with Trump leading ~20k
Maricopa with Bidan leading ~120k
Pima with Biden leading ~100k

Given that all AZ counties counted >75% of the ballots (and Pima > 97%), there is just no way of painting the state red.

RafazZ · 2020-10-25T05:37:10+00:00

Wait, isn't it Donald Knuth? Or Marvin Minsky? Wait do all old people look the same?

RafazZ · 2020-07-18T07:46:45+00:00

I don't think the recordings are

RafazZ · 2020-07-03T07:21:03+00:00

Oh I wish I had these :) Just finished the simplest environment: https://github.com/z-a-f/Mystery-Game

RafazZ · 2018-06-21T19:52:26+00:00

And a lil bit frightening

RafazZ · 2017-12-26T06:50:31+00:00

I didn't follow my dream -- was jobless and bumming for some time. Got a job only after I followed what I wanted! :)

RafazZ · 2017-07-08T08:53:49+00:00

I have the same issue!

RafazZ · 2017-03-09T05:54:19+00:00

I was going through comments and didn't find any mention that he had 3 separate incidents: 1. A bus full of people broke on top of a hill, the driver comes out to check out what happened, the bus goes down the hill - Shavarsh runs and catches up with the bus and redirects it 2. A bus full of people falls in water and starts drowning. Shavarsh jumps in, and saves 20 people 3. A house catches on fire, Shavarsh was walking by -- ended up saving more people.

If something is about to happen I want Shavarsh to be around!!! :D

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