Thread: Complexity
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Unread 28 Feb 2004, 17:48   #82
Ebany
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Re: Complexity

He isnt arguing over which is more complex, and hasnt been throughout this whole thing (aside from occasional very brief comments) He is mostly arguing over your assertion that maths is finite. How can you KNOW anything to do with thought is finite when we have more to think about it. Yes maths has to actually work (ie fit with physical observations - match physics) but we are still steadily incresing our ability to observe things and refining theories, and hell, on rare occasions there is new stuff coming up. We cant KNOW that we will not continue to find new theories - that cant be built into other, older, theories for as long as we keep thinking and observing. Otherwise scientists and mathematicians may as well just sit back and not bother. How can you possibly say that at some point in the future we will run out of things to research. These days we have stopped being so presumptuous to say we have 'answered' just about anything. It is accepted that we may be completely wrong in what we think, like the people who used to swear the earth was flat.

I have wondered before about why everyone uses the same numbers though. There are a range of alphabets around the world, but everywhere has the same numbers (as far as I know). Although I guess the romans didn't. (If you are counting that to understand language we need to know all about every language in the world, current or disused, then you will have to spend quite some time going round and investigating into all present and past cultures for any alternative means of counting, as surely this is just the same as knowing another languages spelling of a word. I'd guess none of these would have made it much past the 'ug, ug' equivalent level of maths, but its your principle)
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