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RE: POLL: Should Moo! Wrapper be Removed from the Whitelist?
I've been thinking about your definition of of useful science and I can't get away from it.
"Triviality" is a measure of value. Value is a measure of opinion. Now we're back at the beginning. I don't think "useful science" can be objectively defined.
If this is the case -- I invite challenge on the subject -- but if this the case, the question becomes: do we want to impose our values on everyone else? I can think of arguments for both sides of the discussion and am very much looking forward to when we as a community get to delve into this issue in a more structured and objective way (without the fate of a project on the line).
Yeah, I see what you're saying. Words are hard.. (why I've never been a fan of philosophy..)
I suppose one example of triviality is something that could easily be inferred from what we already know. moo! wrapper falls under this category. One can think of other instances, e.g. calculating as many digits of Pi as possible "just to check" that its decimal representation doesn't terminate.
Checking the digits of pi is crucial!
So is the testing that collatz conjecture is in fact true!
So is SETI!
etc.
The thing about pi is we can prove its decimal expansion never terminates. On the other hand, there is currently no proof that the Collatz sequence always reaches 1 no matter the starting n, nor is there compelling evidence ET doesn't exist out there.
Learned a lot from this conversation. Looking forward to more = )
Likewise! We'll come back to these topics in later discussions I'm sure.