[HN Gopher] Learning via Negativa
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       Learning via Negativa
        
       Author : rckrd
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2023-08-16 03:21 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (matt-rickard.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (matt-rickard.com)
        
       | EdSchouten wrote:
       | How is this different from reductio ad absurdum?
        
         | golemotron wrote:
         | In via negativa you achieve risk reduction even if you stop
         | before arriving at the absurd.
        
       | 50 wrote:
       | Furthermore:
       | 
       | In theology, the apophatic as a clearing of the unreal.
       | 
       | In problem-solving, the invert as a uncovering of beliefs.
        
         | wddkcs wrote:
         | I'm familiar with the historical context of apophatic theology,
         | particularly Spinoza, but haven't seen your description before.
         | Is this from a particular source, or how are you defining
         | 'clearing' and 'unreal'?
        
       | chubot wrote:
       | Yup, negative knowledge is more robust too
       | 
       | It only takes seeing one black swan to disprove "all swans are
       | not white"
       | 
       | While you can observe 30 or 300 years of white swans, and never
       | prove the converse: "all swans are white"
       | 
       | This might sound trivial to some people, until you start hearing
       | "this is a 1 in 10,000 year event" from your banker, 5 times in
       | 50 years
       | 
       | Also related to questions like "Is this airplane going to fall
       | out of the sky?"
        
         | ttctciyf wrote:
         | > only takes seeing one black swan to disprove "all swans are
         | not white"
         | 
         | I think you mean 'disprove _" all swans are white"_', since a
         | black swan tends to confirm the existence of non-white swans.
         | 
         | In other nitpicking news, the title should capitalize the V in
         | Via since Via Negativa is the "Way of Negation", not "by means
         | of Negation" as you might think from the current
         | capitalisation.
        
       | travisjungroth wrote:
       | I wonder how the average unit test fits into this. There's
       | something "negative" feeling about writing cases where you would
       | expect a solution to likely fail and watching them pass. It's
       | different than _proving_ it works. It seems similar to the "what
       | not to do" point.
        
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