If you are familiar with combinatory logic, perhaps an explanation featuring enchanted forests full of songbirds would seem unnecessarily complicated. Nevertheless, "To Mock a Mockingbird" is one of the most delightful books I've ever read.
Perhaps, in the end, it's just a form of recreation. One thing that interests me about such fantastic metaphors is to what extent they trigger or inhibit the "math reflex" of recognizing a problem one has already solved.
If there isn't a spoiler title, how many people familiar with Lambda Calculus have an "Aha! This is the Lambda Calculus" moment before it is revealed?
The author of "To Mock a Mockingbird", Raymond Smullyan, has written extensively
on logic, and he has books all across the spectrum of difficulty. He even wrote
what some consider to be "The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever".
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192801422/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...
Perhaps, in the end, it's just a form of recreation. One thing that interests me about such fantastic metaphors is to what extent they trigger or inhibit the "math reflex" of recognizing a problem one has already solved.
If there isn't a spoiler title, how many people familiar with Lambda Calculus have an "Aha! This is the Lambda Calculus" moment before it is revealed?