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XOR's Hammer
Personal blog · xorshammer.commathphilosophy
XOR's Hammer is a personal blog at xorshammer.com about math and philosophy. Since 2010, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 13 times, most often “A Geometrically Natural Uncomputable Function (2008)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-02-22, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for essays on mathematics and physics, such as the history of calculus and infinitesimals, Drescher's discrete 'Quantish' quantum model, Spinoza's God, and topos views of continents.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Some things in mathematical logic that I find interesting
Most-linked posts?
- A Geometrically Natural Uncomputable Function (2008)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-10-15
What Hacker News says?
I recently started reading Amir Alexander's 2014 book "Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World". It's a really great read, this is pre-Newton, pre-Leibniz. People were doing calculus more than two hundred years before those guys! They struggled with paradoxes to do with infinitely many zero length points making up a line, and the Jesuits just outright banned that stuff. Partly beca…
Comment linking /2008/08/11/smooth-infinitesimal-analysis/
on “Calculus Learning Guide”Submitted A Geometrically Natural Uncomputable Function (2008) as a story · 49 points
HN discussionIf you liked that, you might also find interesting Drescher's 'Quantish' model where he demonstrates how you can implement quantum effects using simplish circuits: https://xorshammer.com/2010/02/17/quantish-physics-a-discret... http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/6486/AIM-1026a...
Comment linking /2010/02/17/quantish-physics-a-discrete-model-of-quantum-physics/
on “Wireworld”Submitted Quantish Physics: a discrete model of quantum physics as a story · 9 points
HN discussionhttps://xorshammer.com/2008/09/04/a-geometrically-natural-un...
Comment linking /2008/09/04/a-geometrically-natural-uncomputable-function/
on “Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?”Submitted A Suite of Logic Programs as a story · 3 points
HN discussionsomething related https://xorshammer.com/2016/05/18/gravity-is-stronger-than-i...
Comment linking /2016/05/18/gravity-is-stronger-than-i-thought/
on “Gravitational attraction of stars and cows”Submitted But why is proof by contradiction non-constructive? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionAll the semantic arguments here would disappear if we all simply recognized the "set of continents" for what it really is: a set-valued sheaf on some parameter space ( https://xorshammer.com/2016/07/24/the-cgp-grey-topos-of-cont... ).
Comment linking /2016/07/24/the-cgp-grey-topos-of-continents/
on “Scientists Are Just Starting to Understand Earth’s Eighth Continent, Zealandia”Submitted A language which does term inference (2008) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSee https://xorshammer.com/2009/03/23/what-happens-when-you-iter... basically you have problems once you get past the finite ordinals.
Comment linking /2009/03/23/what-happens-when-you-iterate-godels-theorem/
on “Maybe the spaghetti code conjecture is false”Submitted Quantifier elimination with Mathematica as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Logical Interpretation of Some Bits of Topology as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
