On 3/15/07, Brent Meeker <meekerdb.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>
> Torgny Tholerus wrote:
> > Stathis Papaioannou skrev:
> >> On 3/14/07, *Torgny Tholerus* <torgny.domain.name.hidden
> >> <mailto:torgny.domain.name.hidden>> wrote:
> >>
> >> Stathis Papaioannou skrev:
> >>> How can you be sure? Maybe space is discrete.
> >> Yes, space (and time) is discrete. Everything in the universe is
> >> finite, and the universe itself is finite. Infinity is a
> >> logically impossible concept.
> >>
> >>
> >> I don't see that "discrete" and "finite" necessarily go together. The
> >> integers are discrete, but not finite.
> > No, the integers are finite. There exists only a finite numer of
> > integers. There exists a biggest integer N. It is true that you can
> > construct the integer N+1, but this integer is not a member of the set
> > of all integers.
>
> This must be computer arithmetic (modulo N?) - not Peano's. :-)
>
> >
> > Because everything is finite, you can conclude that the space-time is
> > discrete.
>
> That doesn't follow. The universe could be finite and closed, like the
> interval [0,1] and space could still be a continuum.
>
> But these ideas illustrate a problem with "everything-exists". Everything
> conceivable, i.e. not self-contradictory is so ill defined it seems
> impossible to assign any measure to it, and without a measure, something to
> pick out this rather than that, the theory is empty. It just says what is
> possible is possible. But if there a measure, something picks out this
> rather than that, we can ask why THAT measure?
Isn't that like arguing that there can be no number 17 because there is no
way to assign it a measure and it would get lost among all the other objects
in Platonia?
Stathis Papaioannou
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to everything-list.domain.name.hidden
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list-unsubscribe.domain.name.hidden
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Received on Thu Mar 15 2007 - 00:31:18 PDT