Holes (1996-2025) (plato.stanford.edu)

37 points by surprisetalk a day ago

alister 9 minutes ago

> Some languages even discriminate different types of hole, distinguishing e.g. between superficial hollows, inner cavities, and see-through perforations.

This blew me away when learning Portuguese. You have to use different words depending on the kind of hole: for a hole in the ground or in your tooth, it's buraco, and for hole to pass a shoelace, it's furo. A hole that is closed at one end is different than one that's pass-through. I never thought about the distinction before learning another language.

andai 2 hours ago

Excerpt:

a. Holes are ontologically parasitic: they are always in something and cannot exist in isolation. (‘There is no such thing as a hole by itself’, Tucholsky 1931: 100; ‘Take away the thing, and the hole goes too’, Heath 1967: 524). This is why there cannot exist a world consisting only of holes (Coggins 2010: 71).

b. Holes are fillable. You don’t necessarily destroy a hole by filling it up (except perhaps when the filling is homogeneous with the hole-lining); you don’t create a new hole by removing the filling.

c. Holes are locationally gracious. When you fill or put something in a hole, the hole does not squeeze to the side; it shares its location with its guest (and if the guest has a hole, you get two co-located entities of the same kind).

smitty1e an hour ago

How about engineering usage when removing material from, e.g., a beam, can help achieve overall weight/flexibility goals?

jcmontx 3 hours ago

I could have gone my whole life without thinking this

fwlr an hour ago

A lovely surprise to see this here; this was my favorite text for explaining “what is philosophy” to people.

amelius 2 hours ago

No mention of semiconductors?

Bluestein 2 hours ago

Interesting thought ...

roosterIllusi0n a day ago

Every human is a donut.

SpaceNoodled 3 hours ago

Can confirm, am delicious.