I hate to be pedantic (ok, no, I don’t), but the overlap area is ‘with AND without you’, which isn’t what Bono is singing. :-) He definitely can’t live in the red or the blue… but the green might actually work for him in a non-deterministic sort of way.
Chris for the win. Jeez, if you’re gonna post geek humor, you’ve got to get it right, for goodness’ sakes. We should instead be discussing whether the “OR” is an exclusive or inclusive OR; whether “with you” and “without you” are truly complementary, or whether they partition the entire space (that is, whether it is possible to be neither “with you” nor “without you”), etc.
Ditto to the pedantics above. As a mathematician, I resent this comic deeply. What will the youth think?
By the way, semantically, it is clear that the OR should be inclusive. Bono can’t leave either with or without you, meaning that he can only live in the area outside of both circles.
Worse yet: The use of a two-circle Venn diagram is wrong here, because unless Bono is a superposition or something of the sort, “with you” and “without you” should be complementary regions, meaning this should really be a one-circle Venn diagram, and Bono can live neither in the circle nor out of the circle. You see, Bono finds he cannot do neither of two options who together comprise the entire space of options — he finds himself in the same conundrum as the barber from Russel’s paradox, that neither cuts his own hair nor refrains from cutting his own hair. This paradox gives rise to the lyrical angst in the song, and is coupled with the extended pronunciation wiiiiiiiiiithout you.
I hate to be pedantic (ok, no, I don’t), but the overlap area is ‘with AND without you’, which isn’t what Bono is singing. :-) He definitely can’t live in the red or the blue… but the green might actually work for him in a non-deterministic sort of way.
Wow, I was going to post the same thing… GMTA. ;)
Chris for the win. Jeez, if you’re gonna post geek humor, you’ve got to get it right, for goodness’ sakes. We should instead be discussing whether the “OR” is an exclusive or inclusive OR; whether “with you” and “without you” are truly complementary, or whether they partition the entire space (that is, whether it is possible to be neither “with you” nor “without you”), etc.
Best ever.
Ditto to the pedantics above. As a mathematician, I resent this comic deeply. What will the youth think?
By the way, semantically, it is clear that the OR should be inclusive. Bono can’t leave either with or without you, meaning that he can only live in the area outside of both circles.
Worse yet: The use of a two-circle Venn diagram is wrong here, because unless Bono is a superposition or something of the sort, “with you” and “without you” should be complementary regions, meaning this should really be a one-circle Venn diagram, and Bono can live neither in the circle nor out of the circle. You see, Bono finds he cannot do neither of two options who together comprise the entire space of options — he finds himself in the same conundrum as the barber from Russel’s paradox, that neither cuts his own hair nor refrains from cutting his own hair. This paradox gives rise to the lyrical angst in the song, and is coupled with the extended pronunciation wiiiiiiiiiithout you.
Hahaha. I was about to post a very similar, yet probably less elegant, post.
Fail.