Editorial: Audio Downloads with a Postscript on Gödel

Audio Downloads with a Postscript on Gödel

[Image: an example of the audio download interface provided by Mega.]

Publication date: 2022-11-11

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Dear Community,

This editorial concerns those who listen to audio published at this newsletter, though the postscript describes a derivation of this author’s nom de-plume.

The text for the "Out of the Frying Pan" episode has been updated to describe an experiment. The background to this is that I find audio files being locked behind "in browser" players to be offensive. I want the audio file so that I can play it locally. The same is true with video. Give me the damn file!

I have a better player on my computer, and with the file I can skip around instantly and not have to wait for network buffering pauses.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Thus, I propose to upload my audio recordings to a site to which I will link. You may then choose not to use the browser based surveillance player embedded in Substack but just download the file and play it with whatever player you wish.

This has been done for the "Frying Pan" audio. Try it out and see what you think. Here is direct link for the audio download. As I note in the update to the text of the audio publication, Mega (the place where I upload so that you can download) also has an embedded player. Do not use it. It is horrid. Do the download and use your local player. That is the entire point.

For me to know if you like this feature and wish me to continue, I need your feedback. So, and this is IMPORTANT, if you like this feature please add a like (the heart button) to THIS article. Furthermore, please do NOT like this article unless you mean that you wish for me to continue this practice of providing a download link for audio.

Clear? A "Like" for this article means "please continue with providing an audio download feature" because you hate surveillance or you prefer your own audio player, or both (*).

As mentioned in the recent "Thank You" I've only been publishing for a little under a year and a half, and only publishing audio for 3 months. I am still learning. So, please excuse my experimentation. Lastly, I desperately want a better microphone but am rather strapped for funds currently. I'll get there when I can.

Lastly, today is "Remembrance Day", 11/11. I suggest that those of you whose family has been impacted by war take a few moments, or perhaps a walk in a park, to reflect on the brutality and stupidity of war compared to the civility of negotiation and compromise. I lost a grandfather I never knew. Another brave grandfather was a bombardier for the allies in WWII. We as children were informed, or warned, that one should never take a photograph with a flash in his company. He had seen too many "flashes" and understood what they meant.

Thank you for your interest in these publications.

With humility,

YesXorNo

Postscript

(*) Those trained in formal logic will understand that the "or both" is completely unneeded in an "A or B" construct. The logical operator OR means that one of A or B or both are true. The "or both" is implicit in the use of "or".

Those who are perceptive will have seen that the nom de-plume of this author 'YesXorNo' uses "Xor" which, in formal logic notation, is a contraction of "exclusive or". Exclusive or means that either A is true or that B is true, but not both. This is generally what one means in language rather than logic.

Those who are students of logic and mathematics will also know of Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorums. These are a response to Henri Poincaré's list of challenges which he proposed to mathematicians in the late 19th century. Gödel contributes to answering the question of whether mathematics is "complete" in the sense of formal logic. What he demonstrates via mathematical proof is that in any formal language it is possible to make statements which can neither be proven as true or false. Thus, mathematics cannot definitively answer all of the questions it can propose. This is a devastating attack on logical rationality as a sole source of "truth". Sadly, Gödel's incompleteness theorums are poorly known or understood.

[Image: Kurt Gödel]

To understand what Gödel was probing, one can merely consider the following proposition:

This statement is false.

It is a self-contradictory self-referential loop.

This trivial proposition can be expressed in whatever formal logical language one constructs. To assert that the proposition is true contradicts itself. Equivalently, in a binary "true/false" paradigm, asserting that it is false proves its truth.

So, the origin of YesXorNo is the paradox of the use of "or" in language versus its use in formal logic, and points to Gödel's work on understanding that binary logic systems are incomplete or even fallible.

I have no idea why I got into this rant. Such are the workings of an inquisitive mind. Perhaps this was just a long way of repeating:

take a walk in the park, and contemplate the stupidity of war.

Sources

Not applicable.

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