logoalt Hacker News

mitxelatoday at 7:07 AM1 replyview on HN

So your theory is that arithmetic is nondeterministic because very rarely a calculator will say 1+1=3.


Replies

lioeterstoday at 3:59 PM

Arithmetic is deterministic, because it is abstract. A calculator or computer is not, because it is physical and exists in a non-deterministic universe. But with error correction, etc., it's deterministic enough for practical purposes. For more in-depth explanation, start with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminism