Comment by filleduchaos
3 days ago
> That's where you're wrong. Both objects reflect the same mathematical operations in their structure.
This is missing the point by a country mile, I think.
All navel-gazing aside, understanding every bit of how an arithmometer works - hell, even being able to build one yourself - tells you absolutely nothing about how the Z80 chip in a TI-83 calculator actually works. Even if you take it down to individual components, there is zero real similarity between how a Leibniz wheel works and how a (full) adder circuit works. They are in fact fundamentally different machines that operate via fundamentally different principles.
The idea that similar functions must mean that they share significant similarities under the hood is senseless; you might as well argue that there are similarities to be found between a nuclear chain reaction and the flow of a river because they are both harnessed to spin turbines to generate electricity. It is a profoundly and quite frankly disturbingly incurious way for anyone who considers themself an "engineer" to approach the world.
You don't get it at all, do you?
"Implements the same math" IS the similarity.
I'm baffled that someone in CS, a field ruled by applied abstraction, has to be explained over and over again that abstraction is a thing that exists.
In case you have missed it in the middle of the navel-gazing about abstraction, this all started with the comment "Please stop comparing these things to biological systems. They have very little in common."[0]
If you insist on continuing to miss the point even when told explicitly that the comment is referring to what's inside the box, not its interface, then be my guest. There isn't much of a sensible discussion about engineering to be had with someone who thinks that e.g. the sentence "Please stop comparing [nuclear reactors] to [coal power plants]. They have very little in common" can be countered with "but abstraction! they both produce electricity!".
For the record, I am not the one you have been replying to.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46053563
You are missing the point once again.
They have "very little in common", except for the fact that they perform the same kind of operations.