What seems the most likely is that, effectively, memory is like very lossy, probabilistic compression spread with redundancy across a billion analog storage nodes, similar in some ways to a Bloom filter. It’s not binary though, it’s analog. After all, there’s no value in perfectly “unlearning” or destroying a specific memory, just “free” it up by gradual deemphasis of its parts and perhaps it may effectively go away.
Also, the interplay between short-term and long-term memory formation in order to make some approximation of the short-term memory (also an approximation) somewhat permanent.
Granted, recall is imperfect and different every each time.
Yup. Think of C as a rusty straight razor and Fortran as a barn full of rusty implements about ready to fall at any time. C++ maybe a rusty safety razor.
Originally, Fortran had manual memory management, as per the times. Thankfully, the language progressed.
Overall, the evolution of languages from assembly/raw instructional to procedural ones needed early languages like Fortran on which other higher-level languages, tools and OSes could be later built/bootstrapped.
I knocked out a bunch of lower division CS classes at a JC (taking 5 at a time). I think I went to the first class and a few before midterms and finals. Just got the labs and handed them in the next day.
Hurray for attendance-optional JCs! :D
Most of it transferred to an UC and then the fun began:
- caching http/1.0 forking select() proxy server as the third project in a networking class, circa 2002
- Java subset to MIPS assembly compiler
- Reimplement most of the OpenGL pipeline in C++, quaternions and write a trapezoid (scanline to scanline) engine (on which a triangle engine could be built). Oh and then model the interior of the building.
- Pipelined, microcoded, simple branch-predicting processor. Bonus points for smallest microcode and fewest microcycles. (I Huffman mapped the histogram of the sample assembly programs’ executed instructions to the user-defined binary macro ISA (students had to write the assembler too), and then used progressive decoding in the microcode (43 micro ops long microprogram IIRC). Blew the doors off the extra credit in that class.)
In the late 90’s, I helped port a nuclear reactor simulator to Win32. It was around 20 million lines of Fortran and was actively developed by physicists and engineers (none were really software engineers). And, at that time the codebase was around 40 years old. Apart from disabling virtual memory, it worked on winDOwS nearly flawlessly on an COTS PC and ran about 50% faster than the fastest *nix test lab box.
It’s done mostly for historical tradition reasons, and it costs nontrivial time and money to switch.
Don’t get lost barking up the partisan tree, most Americans aren’t the enemy. Both parties are different flavors of corrupt (Gore Vidal’s Property party): one ignores their base while taking corporate money and the other panders to extremists and also takes the same blood money.
Spectrum isn’t an axis. There is much grey in the world statistics can’t capture. Looking for data to fit a narrative is political science, not science.
People often conflate nebulous “evil” with more specific rational self-interest, good investments and cheating/underpaying/stealing from people.
There are a lot of middling rich people whom do underpay people because it works and don’t care about long-term views of themselves or of the relationship... this can sabotage greater opportunities later on or current income streams now (it’s a small world and a hyperconnected one). There are many whom don’t because it also reflects poorly on them and their associates, and it turns off their friends, potential customers, investors and partners... also some people have integrity and wouldn’t dream of it.
In fact, the more connected someone is, the less likely they are to screw people over because it’s a bigger risk. The big headlines of harassment or scams are the exceptions. Certainly, there are instutions like many banks whom obscure their wealth extraction from less rich and transfer it to their investor/owners. They are culpable but may not believe or realize they are.
Wealth is a spectrum, as are integrity and personality. How is squishy “science” going to “measure” take those nuances or mentally-compartmentalized/hidden wealth transfer into account?
Fuck, I’d try this right now. Just stopped mirtazepene because it was less and less effective. Now I’m back to the black dog. I know of a university in the US that has someone with the even more magical DEA exclusion certificate, wouldn’t trust informal economy’s supply-chain.
- hypermonetization (and deleterious siloing) of works often produced with government grants, leading to primarily academics only having ready access to papers, whom don’t see the subscription costs as a burden to them.
- disseminating only papers meeting a threshold to maintain quality of the journal
Maybe scientists and academics should seek to create and use equivalent quality peer / committee adversalism but publish in open forum that operates based on donations.
Academia seems currently over-commercialised: industry getting cheap labor, undergrads going into debt and journals, law libraries and textbook companies making a killing by locking up knowledge behind a paywall. Research papers and case law should be available to the most people as possible for little or no cost.
The current answer is we don’t yet have full functional pathologies of types of depression, noninvasive, specific mood disorders classified down to exact neurological dysfunctions, accurate and precise knowledge of how existing antidepressants work and evidenced-based application of particular therapies based on such scientifically-identified presentations. Clinical psychiatry has been mostly a scattergun, guesswork that lacks scientific rigor.
For example, I just tapered-off mirtazepene as it stopped working after 9 years and, so far, bupropion isn’t helping. I’d really like to try S32212 if it proves safe enough in human models because it likely lacks the GI and weight-gain issues.
Umm, not sure this is universal but partial. Depression seems evolutionary psych for multiple, overlapping purposes:
- Reducing aggression (and hence conflict) in larger groups.
- Focusing on existential re/purpose by turning inward (ie find a new job/hobby/outlook/philosophy). Lots of reading, writing and ideation. Hopefully rebuild confidence/positivity with completing something.
- Retreating for terminal resource consumption minimization. Leave more for the young.
Also, anecdotally, I did everything “right” (ie CBT, frequent vigorous exercise, solid career, friends, sleep hygiene, address sleep apnea) and still couldn’t escape depression’s “mind pain” and depressive state. Only medication worked, like parting the clouds, waking up refreshed and organized thinking instead of a jumble.
Doesn’t address the problem by shifting externalities elsewhere and reinforces prejudices. Maybe instead of arrogant “quick fixes” it’s worth considering, lower TCO permanent solutions like micro apartments, real and integrated drug, health and mental healthcare coverage coordinated with social workers would address the major sources of costs (ie social services, emergency rooms and justice system).
They could open source everything but secret keys for cloud, secure enclave, secure booting, etc. It’s not like it would help knock-off iDevices or putting something other an iOS on an iDevice. Jailbreaking is almost dead and there hasn’t been much movement on making more system features having third-party plugins (ie iOS 11 Control Center Custom Controls).
Ideally, I’d like to see an opensource software and hardware phone with zero opaque binary firmware blobs, something that is independently verified by tearing apart, decapping and X-ray/microscope RTL verification. Security through crypto and the right eyeballs able to scrutinize end products with maximum information.