A question on modification of a list via a function invocation
Steven D'Aprano
steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info
Wed Sep 6 02:21:10 EDT 2017
On Tue, 05 Sep 2017 21:17:30 -0700, Rustom Mody wrote:
> Sure you can say with Steven that this can be 'explained' by saying an
> object can be in two places at one time.
> Others would then say 'Humpty-dumpty!' since you have removed the most
> basic intuition of objects and you are in effect saying that a python
> object means what you ordain it means without further ado/explanation
I have previously agreed that the "multiple places at once" metaphor is
not to everyone's liking.
But many (perhaps even most) people have no problem dealing with location
as a metaphor, where being in two places (metaphorically) is no problem
at all:
- I am in love, in trouble and in denial all at once.
Even when the location is not a state of being but an actual physical
place, we can be in multiple places at once:
- I am in my home, in Melbourne, and in Australia all at once.
Being in two places at once is a common trope in both fantasy and science
fiction (often involving time travel). These are not niche genres: they
are *extremely* popular. One of the Harry Potter movies involved Harry,
Ron and Hermoine travelling backwards in time a few minutes to watch
themselves. It's a moderately common trope in stories like Doctor Who,
where the Doctor frequently interacts with his past (or future) self. I
recently saw an episode of Dark Matter that used the trope.
Robert Heinlein, one of the greats of SF, wrote a number of classic time
travel stories involving people being in multiple places at once. (In one
of them, the protagonist has a sex change and becomes *both* his own
grandfather and grandmother.)
An object being inside itself is rarer, but its been done at least twice
that I know of in Doctor Who.
Don't underestimate people's ability to stretch the location metaphor
beyond actual physical location. We do it all the time for virtual
locations like IRC channels:
- I'm in #python, #ruby and #javascript all at once.
But if the metaphor isn't for you, I'm not saying you have to use it.
--
Steven D'Aprano
“You are deluded if you think software engineers who can't write
operating systems or applications without security holes, can write
virtualization layers without security holes.” —Theo de Raadt
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