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Is this title false? [Solved by Anarchid]

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Lynx
In other words, is it true that the title of this thread is false?
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6 years ago
Title has no truth value. Title is phrased as a question.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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6 years ago
The title is a string. Depending on your language I would expect the title to either be true or a type error. The title is in a database and I don't know off the top of my head how/if they handle string to boolean conversion.
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Lynx
quote:
AUrankSnuggleBass Title has no truth value. Title is phrased as a question.


Does this question not have truth value?
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quote:
The title is in a database and I don't know off the top of my head how/if they handle string to boolean conversion.

MSSQL doesn't have a boolean data type at all. However, when the title is queried from the database, it is then processed by the C# server code.

Now, C# does have a boolean type, and even better, has implicit casts, and has explicit string-to-boolean converters. However, this is what happens when you try an implicit cast on this string:
truth.cs(9,12): error CS0029: Cannot implicitly convert type `string' to `bool'


And this is what happens if you try an explicit conversion:
[ERROR] FATAL UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid Boolean.


But let's not give up yet! After the server processes the title and renders the page, it is then sent to the browser as a bunch of HTML an Javascript. While HTML in itself doesn't have a rigid definition of truthness, javascript has boolean types, implicit casting, etc, and can trivially access the innerHTML value of the title tag. This is what Javascript gives us:

// 1) 
"Is this title false?" === true
false
// 2)
"Is this title false?" === false
false
// 3)
"Is this title false?" == false
false
// 4)
!"Is this title false?" 
false


What does this tell us? The value we are trying is:
1) not literally true.
2) not literally false.
3) not false-like
4) the negation of this value is false, so it's truth-like

As we can see, the meaning of this value has shifted wildly based on the language in which it is _read_, and in the way the question of its truth is formulated in every language. There is no rigorously correct answer: the truth-meaning of this title is nebulous, and it also depends on who's asking - so it's subjective.

However, we can also observe a pattern: all of the languages and systems we interrogated agree that it is definitely not what they understand by "false"; therefore the meaning of this title is both nebulous and patterned at the same time.
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6 years ago
no
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Firepluk
Lob lob?!?
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Lynx
6 years ago
EErankAdminAnarchid: Fantastic response I must say! I am happy to mark this thread as solved with your response above.
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