alt.hn

12/28/2025 at 11:11:50 PM

Spherical Cow

 https://lib.rs/crates/spherical-cow

by Natfan

12/29/2025 at 2:09:37 AM

> The reason this library was initially written was to optimise the layout of inflatable space habitats which may one day be constructed on the Moon and Mars.

Wow, they even deliver on the “in a vacuum” bit

by pinkmuffinere

12/30/2025 at 8:48:10 PM

Mars does have an atmosphere. It's much less dense than Earth's, but its enough to have weather. Pretty good joke though.

by gradientsrneat

12/28/2025 at 11:41:27 PM

The concept of a spherical cow was also part of Chris Morris’ comedy oeuvre. Possibly in the Brasseye episode “Animals”.

by borborigmus

12/29/2025 at 10:54:36 AM

I know this joke since the 90s and one has to assume it's even going way back

by wolfi1

12/29/2025 at 3:58:03 AM

>> "I have the solution, but it works only in the case of spherical cows in a vacuum".

I get the joke, but that's not really what modeling means. There's no "only" determination here.

So sure, the researchers devised a model, in which the cows were spherical and in a vacuum. That produced a solution, but there's nothing to show that solution would work less in an air environment with regular cows [1].

I bring this up only because elsewhere here is a discussion of computer fundamentals (and their lack in juniors / self taught folk, and AI output). The quote above is logically flawed (likely on purpose to create the joke) but understanding that it is a logical joke may not be obvious to everyone.

[1] to show that they would have to build a model with air and meat to show the solution fails, at which point the original model would be discarded.

by bruce511

12/29/2025 at 10:50:44 AM

This trail of thought is not logically sound. The whole argument is built on the notion of what modeling is and isn't, but the original quote doesn't make the assumptions you imply. Sure, they might have a model that assumes cows are spherical and etc, but it might also very well be that they have hard constraints that make it work only for spherical cows and nothing else. There isn't enough information in the quote to make the argument you're trying to make.

by Etheryte

12/29/2025 at 11:55:44 AM

> [1] to show that they would have to build a model with air and meat to show the solution fails, at which point the original model would be discarded

You only have to show that it fails for square (or any non-spherical shape) cow in vacuum or for spherical cow in air.

by littlestymaar

12/29/2025 at 1:44:39 AM

Did not over-promise

by dwattttt

12/29/2025 at 2:11:25 AM

I came for spherical cows. I left with spherical cows

by jesse__

12/29/2025 at 2:16:55 AM

In a world full of deception, the spherical cow is a cup of fresh milk.

by gchamonlive

12/29/2025 at 3:45:56 AM

Is the milk spherical too?

by squigz

12/29/2025 at 8:14:55 AM

Yes, if it's floating in space in a pressurized spaceship.

by vardump

12/29/2025 at 10:17:48 AM

Cylindrical straw not included. Limited time offer. Warranty may be void if spaceship uses any reaction wheel or propulsion system. Other exclusions and limitations apply, see ...

by bell-cot

12/29/2025 at 9:13:28 AM

Why not call it SpheriCOW?

by oh_nice_marmot

12/29/2025 at 12:02:16 PM

An improvement - but to get gov't funding, it has to be a straight-acronym name.

Maybe "Space Performance [something ... something] Optimization for Weightlessness"?

by bell-cot

12/29/2025 at 7:44:41 PM

Space Packing Heuristic for Efficient Rearrangement of Enumerated Cattle Optimized for Weightlessness

by NBJack

12/29/2025 at 10:17:50 AM

This will confuse all Copy-On-Write FS developers.

Moooow!

by NoiseBert69

12/29/2025 at 9:16:57 AM

An ideal allegory for Rewrite Everything in Rust Syndrome^WDrive

by mos87

12/29/2025 at 9:54:10 PM

Could this be made no_std/no_alloc?

by ycombinatrix