21 lines
3.2 KiB
HTML
21 lines
3.2 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
|
||
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>gedanken</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../G.html" title="G"/><link rel="previous" href="GECOS.html" title="GECOS"/><link rel="next" href="geef.html" title="geef"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">gedanken</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="GECOS.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">G</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="geef.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="gedanken"/><dt xmlns="" id="gedanken"><b>gedanken</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/g@·dahn´kn/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> Ungrounded; impractical; not well-thought-out; untried;
|
||
untested.</p></dd><dd><p>‘Gedanken’ is a German word for ‘thought’. A
|
||
thought experiment is one you carry out in your head. In physics, the term
|
||
<span class="foreignphrase"><i class="foreignphrase">gedanken experiment</i></span> is used to refer to an
|
||
experiment that is impractical to carry out, but useful to consider because
|
||
it can be reasoned about theoretically. (A classic gedanken experiment of
|
||
relativity theory involves thinking about a man in an elevator accelerating
|
||
through space.) Gedanken experiments are very useful in physics, but must
|
||
be used with care. It's too easy to idealize away some important aspect of
|
||
the real world in constructing the ‘apparatus’.</p><p>Among hackers, accordingly, the word has a pejorative connotation.
|
||
It is typically used of a project, especially one in artificial
|
||
intelligence research, that is written up in grand detail (typically as a
|
||
Ph.D. thesis) without ever being implemented to any great extent. Such a
|
||
project is usually perpetrated by people who aren't very good hackers or
|
||
find programming distasteful or are just in a hurry. A <span class="firstterm">gedanken thesis</span> is usually marked by an obvious
|
||
lack of intuition about what is programmable and what is not, and about
|
||
what does and does not constitute a clear specification of an algorithm.
|
||
See also <a href="../A/AI-complete.html"><i class="glossterm">AI-complete</i></a>,
|
||
<a href="../D/DWIM.html"><i class="glossterm">DWIM</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="GECOS.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../G.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="geef.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">GECOS </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> geef</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
|