fishfry

Better to have stayed w/Cantor. Hilbert's program got demolished by Gödel.

Do you have evidence that the universe is eternal? My understanding is that this is an open question in physics, the solution to which would make some...

The discovery of non-Euclidean geometry in the 1840's by Bernhard Riemann and others. The discovery of individually consistent but mutually inconsiste...

In a physical theory? I enjoy Cantor's beautiful work and everything there is to say about it even though it doesn't exist! Math \neq Physics.

Cantor's work is not a physical theory. That no formal axiomatic theory (that satisfies some key technical assumptions) can express all mathematical t...

Because first, Gödelian incompleteness does not apply to physical theories. It applies (loosely speaking) to axiomatic systems of a particular logical...

I must have missed it. I would have remembered your response. Believe it or not you and I are virtually identical in our political outlooks even thoug...

Yes this is a worldwide phenomenon. Populists pushing back on globalism. Nativists pushing back on unrestricted immigration. Endless wars, stupid and ...

Curious to know, are you "Anyone but Trump?" Or "Bernie or bust?" That is, when the Dems screw Bernie out of the nomination (and they're not even bein...

Trump and Bernie are both instantiations of the same historical trend: that there's something wrong with our system and people are starting to notice....

Ok man. I had no idea you felt that way. Thanks for sharing. /s It might interest you to know that many people of longtime political awareness and goo...

Ok man. See you in November. We'll let the American people decide.

I hope you don't mind that I find it unproductive to engage on these specifics with people who hold your opinions. Please know that I am perfectly wel...

Agreed. But of course. I apologize if I have not made it perfectly clear that I agree with this point. I'm analyzing, not partisan-izing. Trump and Be...

I see Trump as a symptom of a system that's not working anymore. And as proof, I offer Bernie. His popularity comes from the same place. Outsiders com...

But you have committed a philosophical fallacy. You have assumed that which is not in evidence. If you go back a couple of posts I have taken pains to...

In my opinion you are either tragically naive or in denial about the perfidy of the Democrats. Here's Caitlyn Johnstone, far more eloquent than me but...

I'm surely unqualified to discuss Peirce. But his view on math as outlined by @"aletheist" appears to track mine. Mathematical existence is pragmatic....

Thanks for your detailed response. It helped put a lot of things into context. So MU is an anti-Peircean. That actually helps me understand Peirce. So...

I agree it's a cheap clichéd talking point ("They can't run healthcare if can't even rig a small caucus"). On the other hand there's a lot of truth to...

What a great coincidence that the technology we mastered in the past forty years just happens to be the secret of consciousness. How lucky we are! Wha...

You must not be following the detailed news from Iowa. It was all politics. Crony contracts given to Hillary and Pete associates. Look it up. It was b...

Ok he was impeached. Happy now? The American people are tuning out. The Dems want to run health care for 300 million but can't count 170,000 votes in ...

You haven't explained the explanatory gap, you've only waved your hands at it.

Perhaps you could publish your interpretation of quantum physics in a reputable journal. Or just explicate it here. A Nobel awaits.

You're made up of quarks whose position is a probability wave smeared across the universe until somebody looks, at which time you end up in the place ...

Great quote. Descartes anticipated the Turing test. And with "... even if they did many things as well as or, possibly, better than anyone of us, they...

Things were just fine before Trump? If the system was working, Trump couldn't exist. Trump and Bernie are both symptoms of the same underlying problem...

Who or what is it that's having the experience? I don't doubt that VR can be fully immersive, either now or in the near future. But who's having the e...

I'm afraid I don't understand the remark. print("Hey I'm sentient in here. Send pr0n and LOLCats!")

What does that even mean? Computation does nothing but flip bits. If a conscious observer interprets the bit flipping as a cat video, that's the contr...

Ok. Not too far from Bertie's quip that math is the subject where we never know what we're talking about or if what we say is true. Ok I perfectly wel...

But yes and yes. Physicists thought one day there must be atoms. Then they discovered the atoms are made of protons and electrons and neutrons. Then t...

Knowledge of the history of math. But it's the same in any discipline. There's science, and then there's the philosophy of science. One can and does d...

Tell me something of pragmatism. Let me say first where I'm coming from. I've read Maddy's great papers Believing the Axioms part I and part II. These...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi

Ah ... was it something I said? I have no sense of having suppressed any thoughts you may have. I had no idea you were presenting anything original. I...

I don't care. If anything whatsoever can prove its own consistency, it's useless as a foundation for math. If it requires something external to itself...

Yes I take that point. But note that it's a theoretical result about abstract, idealized proofs. In actual every day professional mathematics, proofs ...

First let me put this in context. You said the empty set doesn't exist. I gave a short existence proof from the axiom schema of specification. That's ...

I see this a lot among those who have seen a little category theory in the context of computer science, and think they understand the deeper meaning o...

This point must be profoundly wrong or disingenuous on your part. If anything at all -- dependent type theory, Coq, a tuna sandwich on rye -- can prov...

You have the same objection to football, baseball, Chinese checkers, and whist? You reject playing poker because the only Queen you know is Elizabeth?...

I'm sorely behind in responding to my mentions but I am getting to this point soon. I will explain in detail why you are wrong in your response to my ...

Take it up with Frege, Russell, Zermelo, von Neumann, and all the other brilliant 20th century set theorists including those working at the forefront ...

I can't take that as much of a criticism, since by your own criterion you regard the entire community of working professional mathematicians as delusi...

I take your point to heart. The actual meaning of mathematical existence is that it's whatever working professional mathematicians say it is. You don'...

Does the knight's move have chess existence? The other day you said you reject chess because it doesn't refer to anything in the real world. That's ex...

When I challenged you on this point, you admitted that it's not only the empty set, but set theory in its entirety that you object to. Then you added ...

Was that a yes or a no? Stop dancing. You're wrong on the facts, wrong on the math. Why are you trying to placate @"Metaphysician Undercover"'s nutty ...