Category:Theoretical foundations

Things (related to Haskell) that give us the feeling of surprise instead of design, the way natural sciences and mathematics do.

In an Eskimo tale, the Raven, after having created the world, does not recognize his own creatures. He creates a marrow, and after a while, a man steps out of the split marrow. -- Who are you and how do you get here? -- asks Raven his own creature. In another tale, a creature is creating himself, astonishing the god.

In ${\displaystyle \lambda }$-calculus and combinatory logic, the existence of Church numerals was a surprise, too. They were not anticipated, so not a mere design. Other things can be astonishing too -- like the mere existence of self-replicating programs (quines), a consequence of the fixed point theorem.

Haskell is based on and related to powerful ideas, and learning Haskell can yield a feeling of exploring something out there, instead of watching a huge cathedral.