RE: White Rabbit vs. Tegmark

From: Jonathan Colvin <jcolvin.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 10:30:49 -0700

>Brent: I doubt that the concept of "logically possible" has any
> absolute meaning. It is relative to which axioms and
> predicates are assumed.

That's rather the million-dollar question, isn't it? But isn't the
multiverse limited in what axioms or predicates can be assumed? For
instance, can't we assume that in no universe in Platonia can (P AND ~P) be
an axiom or predicate?

>Not long ago the quantum weirdness
> of Bell's theorem, or special relativity would have been
> declared "logically impossible".

That declaration would simply have been mistaken.

  Is it logically possible
> that Hamlet doesn't kill Polonius?

Certainly. I'm sure there are people named "Hamlet" who have not killed a
person named "Polonius".

> Is it logically possible
> that a surface be both red and green?

If you are asking whether it is logically possibly that a surface that can
reflect *only* light at a wavelength of 680 nm can reflect a wavelength of
510 nm, the answer would seem to be "no".

Jonathan Colvin
Received on Sat May 28 2005 - 13:40:38 PDT