(urth) barrington interview

[Brad Henry]

as interesting as the theological and mathematics discussion is, could you
perhaps take this off the Urth list as it doesn't pertain to Wolfe?

On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Jeffery Wilson clueland.com <
jwilson at clueland.com> wrote:

> On 10/10/2014 8:09 AM, Lee wrote:
>
>> Gerry Quinn: All mathematics can be encoded entirely inside the standard
>>> arithmetic
>>>
>>
>>  of the natural numbers, or simple geometry on a plane.
>>>
>>
>>
>> A nice summation of my point. Math requires numbers. Numbers describe the
>>
>> universe in terms of discrete, countable units. I find it quite possible
>> that there
>>
>> are places/times in geography and history of the universe in which the
>> concept of
>>
>> numbers was meaningless.
>>
>
> Er, no, because the concept does not depend on the actuality. The numbers
> necessary for math can be entirely notional, and in fact the numbers are
> *always* notional and abstract. There is no place you can touch the number
> two, for instance.
>
> However, that also does not prevent mathematics from being used to
> speculate on what happens *if* the number two can be touched, and other
> "impossible" things. The best we can do is to show it makes a
> contradiction, but that could mean only that the premise is flawed.
>
> You might be interested to explore the history of David Hilbert and Kurt
> Goedel. Godel discovered the inherently incomplete nature of math, which
> made him somehting of a Voltairean figure: a devil set on destroying
> mathemtical science as completists like Hilbert may have felt, but also a
> figure of grace and liberty freeing it from the need to be complete and all
> encompassing and eventually finite.
>
> --
> Jeff Wilson - < jwilson at clueland.com >
> A&M Texarkana Computational Intelligence Lab
> < http://www.tamut.edu/cil >
>
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