Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I'm having trouble understanding whether you are

(1) a troll hiding behind Carl Hewitts name using a veil of CS lingo that's just complex enough to appear legit but is actually nonsense, or

(2) actually Carl Hewitt losing his mind with a bunch of nonsense, or

(3) actually Carl Hewitt who is on to something big and the world has just not caught up with you.

To convince us of (3), have your theories been discussed at related conferences and what does the community make of them?




Carl has a long history of twisting truth and sources.

For example https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/dec/09/wikipedia...

Or the discussion page of the wikipedia page about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Carl_Hewitt

Constantly using "Prof" to prefix his name speaks for itself too.

(In other words, it's (2), but that's not a recent development.)


"Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


Unfortunately, Wikipedia has a long history of libeling people :-(

It would be great if HN could stick to substantive discussions

and not degrade into personal attacks.


Having skimmed through the paper accessible at the end of the first link, I am leaning towards (1). It contains a barrage of eye-assaulting notation, lots of digressions and repetition, and basically no formal substance (which, for a logic/computation paper, is bizarre).


His WP talk page is a shit-show. I'm leaning towards 2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Carl_Hewitt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ACarl_Hewitt%2FArchive_2

(to disclose, I am not qualified to actually judge the arguments)


As is common with many social media platforms, Wikipedia has

huge problems with accountability :-(

It's not worthwhile to go into the whole sordid story on HN.


Sorry that mathematical notation is causing you problems.

How do you see the article lacking in formal substance?


> Sorry that mathematical notation is causing you problems

For somebody who elsewhere in this thread literally asked HN discussion participants to "not degrade into personal attacks" this was an unbelievably arrogant remark.

What about giving us some summary on how the overall community of researchers in the theory of computation area are thinking of your breakthrough insights? I'm sure there are some CS Ph.D.s in here that are interested in some context.


Sorry that you took the remark as arrogant.

Mathematical notation can be difficult to grasp :-(

It would be great if other people joined the discussion!


I suggest you bring the discussion to the appropriate academic forums like conferences and workshops. Doing this via wikipedia and hacker news instead makes it look like your academic peers have decided it's not worth their time so that you are coming here instead.

Once the academic community with researchers in the same field accepts your breakthrough results, it will be easier to convince us that it's legit. And it will come here all by itself, without you having to do active promotion.


Of course I participate in academic and research forums.

For example, see the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ4X0l2298k

Participating in forums such as Hacker News is also important :-)


"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. "

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

(1) does not assume good faith. (2) is not the strongest possible interpretation of what Hewitt said. Listing them here is flamebait and reflects poorly on the community. Shame.

Edit: Added guidelines link.


Dear ganafagol,

Your personal attacks should not be part of Hacker News discussions.

Please confine your remarks to substantive issues instead.


Um...? I was hoping to get some clarification that your account is legit and some references to opinions from the broader research community for your big claims. I came here with an open mind and would have liked to learn something since CS is my passion for decades now.

Unfortunately, by reading your comment history, I learned that you've been self promoting here for quite a while and have always been ignoring questions about references to other people's thoughts on your work. I also learned that there is a wikipedia talk page and apparently the same pattern happened there 5-6 years ago, where you were asked about citations and could only come with self-citation and claims of harrassment. And after sockpuppet edits you got banned there. That's sad, for everybody.

It would be so easy for you to just throw a handful of citations into the mix and let the research speak for itself! You want to go down in CS history as somebody having discovered something big, right? I'd love to see that! Then I could tell my grandkids that I was sitting in the front row! But you won't convince anybody by only doing self-promotion and complaining about "personal attacks". Scientific progress works by convincing the scientific community, and for that you need to engage with it positively.


Dear Ganafagol,

It's great that CS has been your passion for a long time!

However, personal attacks do not belong on Hacker News.

Unfortunately, Wikipedia is a well-known site for libeling

people :-( Wikipedia libels should not be repeated on Hacker News!

Hacker News should be a welcoming forum. Participants on

Hacker News should not be subjected to personal attacks.

Of course, I engage extensively in the scientific community.

Before the covid-19 pandemic, I gave lectures at University

of Cambridge, Oxford University, Edinburgh University,

Imperial University, Stanford, University of Newcastle, etc.

Also, I give seminars at addition forums. For example, see the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ4X0l2298k

You can read the articles in the extensive references in articles linked here:

https://professorhewitt.blogspot.com/2019/07/updated-article...

Do you have anything constructive to contribute to the discussion?


PS. Also, do you have any particular questions about the

subject matter?


Dear Ganafagol,

Science does not work exactly as you have described.

References to scientific papers come afterward.

Sometimes it has taken considerable time for references to appear.

Also, references to other work in a scientific article

appear in context of how the references relate to

the subject of the article.

Science is not based on authorities per se. Instead,

the community works things out over time. Sometimes a consensus

will form. Aristotelian physics lasted for a long time.

However, consensus may dissolve or be replaced

with a revised consensus. For example, Newtonian physics was

revised in relativistic physics.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: