121

HHHmmm. (mander.xyz)

submitted 7 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 30 points 7 months ago

It is rare that I don't understand a nerd joke but I am completely lost

[-] fossilesque@mander.xyz 16 points 7 months ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem

[-] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 29 points 7 months ago

Yes I know about the halting problem, I got extra credit in school for writing a paper with a detailed analysis of a busy beaver machine which at the time ran longer than any in the published literature. I just can't understand the joke... are there people on the second track? Won't the train stop wherever the person is, since the person is defined to be left at the place the trolley will stop? Won't the person die of old age? Why does the diagram show them only 50 meters away, where they're definitely going to die one second from now?

HELP I AM CONFUSED I AM TAKING IT TOO SERIOUSLY

[-] Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 22 points 7 months ago

Yep, my brain also jammed trying to understand what is meant here. Even though I got a degree in theoretical CS...

[-] degen@midwest.social 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

My thought is the left track should start the Turing machine, which is more of an infinite sum joke than the halting problem necessarily? Or the halting problem bit is a sort of tangential pun. The right should just be an infinite track with a person at the end.

Edit: I suppose the infinite sum/halting problem are better described as two sides of the same coin than tangential.

[-] cybervseas@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

We would need to define an oracle that would put the person at that spot though. Right?

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

Yes I stumbled on the secondary thought process of how many people I'm trying, or not trying to run over....which isn't clear.

[-] naeap@sopuli.xyz 6 points 7 months ago

Yeah, you're not alone

Desperately tried to make sense of it...

[-] linearchaos@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago

Has anyone considered just flipping the switch between the front and rear trolley wheels derailing the fucker?

[-] metallic_z3r0@infosec.pub 30 points 7 months ago

[-] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 7 points 7 months ago

Damn beat me to it

[-] fossilesque@mander.xyz 5 points 7 months ago

The Luddites would like a word.

[-] NoIWontPickaName@kbin.social 2 points 7 months ago

Damn you!

That’s what I came here to say.

[-] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

why would I pull the lever in that case?

also 1/2^(-n) is just 2^n^

the only downside of not pulling the lever is that the machine, if it ever finishes, may take significantly longer to do so

or am I missing something?

otherwise very cool crossover of halting problem and trolley problem, good stuff

[-] marcos@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

I guess the only thing worst than be tied down to a track while a trolley passes over you is being tied down there forever while you suffer for malnurishment and dehydration.

[-] XPost3000@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago

Was the lever track supposed to be a supertask? Cuz 1/(2^-n ) is just 2^n , so each instruction takes exponentially longer to execute, so unless the complex turning machine halts in like a single instruction, lever guy is gonna die 100%

But non-lever guy has the potential to either die after a very decent while, or never at all, and lever guy is safe too if i don't pull the lever