In Robert M. Pirsigs 1974 novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, mu is translated as no thing, saying that it meant unask the question. He offered the example of a computer circuit using the binary numeral system, in effect using mu to represent high impedance: For example, its stated over and over again that computer circuits exhibit only two states, a voltage for one and a voltage for zero. Any computer-electronics technician knows otherwise. Try to find a voltage representing one or zero when the power is off! The circuits are in a mu state. The word features prominently with a similar meaning in Douglas Hofstadters 1979 book, Gödel, Escher, Bach. It is used fancifully in discussions of symbolic logic, particularly Gödels incompleteness theorems, to indicate a question whose answer is to -un-ask the question, -indicate the question is fundamentally flawed, or -reject the premise that a dualistic answer can or will be given. Mu may be used similarly to N/A or not applicable, a term often used to indicate the question cannot be answered because the conditions of the question do not match the reality. A laypersons example of this concept is often invoked by the loaded question Have you stopped beating your wife?, to which mu would be the only respectable response. Because of this meaning, programming language Perl 6 ( uses Mu for the root of its type hierarchy. youtu.be/ntEjsIaGIvc
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 14:18:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015