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by bitshiftfaced
817 days ago
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Explanations and speculation: are they mutually exclusive? I'd say an answer from Ken Thompson would be a definitive explanation that might disprove the author's explanation, but that doesn't mean it's not an explanation. |
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Yes. You only need to speculate when you don’t have a firm explanation.
> disprove the author's explanation
Speculation is “the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence”, which is what the author is doing. They’re not explaining, they’re guessing at a reason.