Tag Archives: boolean logic

October 14, 2023

Square Logic

Or do I mean Logic Square? Because it works either way. The Logic Square (or Square Logic) in question is a logic game created by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) and introduced in his 1896 book Symbolic Logic Part I (a second part was published posthumously).

Dodgson was a capable mathematician, but most probably know him by his penname, Lewis Carroll, under which he wrote poetic fantasy fiction about a girl who goes on wild adventures.

But this is about his logic game. It’s like a square Venn diagram with game pieces.

5 Comments | tags: boolean logic, four-square, Lewis Carroll, logic, logic games, Venn diagram | posted in Basics, Math

May 11, 2019

Interpreting AND as OR

By Wyrd Smythe

Previously, I wrote that I’m skeptical of interpretation as an analytic tool. In physical reality, generally speaking, I think there is a single correct interpretation (more of a true account than an interpretation). Every other interpretation is a fiction, usually made obvious by complexity and entropy.

I recently encountered an argument for interpretation that involved the truth table for the Boolean logical AND being seen — if one inverts the interpretation of all the values — as the truth table for the logical OR.

It turns out to be a tautology. A logical AND mirrors a logical OR.

9 Comments | tags: algorithm, AND gate, boolean logic, computation, computationalism, consciousness, human consciousness, interpretation, logic gate, NAND gate, NOR gate, OR gate, Theory of Consciousness, theory of mind, truth table | posted in Computers, Math, Philosophy

October 30, 2016

Sideband #61: Tock

By Wyrd Smythe

relays You’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop, right? The tick to finally tock? (My clock is — as usual — running a bit behind; this should be #62, but that’s another story.) Today’s tale involves electro-mechanical logic! Computing with relays rather than solid-state gates.

Rather than the tick-tock of a mechanical clock, the tock-tick of lots and lots of relays! Aisle after aisle of racks of relays, many thousands of them all clicking away like chattering insects. That’s what is (or was) inside some of those windowless buildings found in every neighborhood with local phone service.

However, today the focus is quite a bit smaller…

3 Comments | tags: binary logic, boolean logic, electro-mechanical, flip-flop, full-adder, half-adder, inverter, logic, logic gate, PBX, relay logic, telephones | posted in Sideband