this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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Obligatory "Falsehoods programmers believe about time"
I really wish that list would include some explanations about why each line is a falsehood, and what's actually true. Particularly the line:
If the author has proof that some software will run on a space ship that is orbiting a black hole, I'd be really interested in seeing it.
It’s a programmer thing. As you’re typing the code, you may suddenly realize that the program needs to a assume certain things to work properly. You could assume that time runs at a normal rate as opposed to something completely wild when traveling close to the speed of light or when orbiting a black hole.
In order to keep the already way too messy code reasonably simple, you decide that the program assumes you’re on Earth. You leave a comment in the relevant part of the code saying that this part shouldn’t break as long as you’re not doing anything too extreme.