What Even Is a Number?

Re:What Even Is a Number? by stcredzero on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @03:09PM (#19202314)

We have very well-developed representations of the number universe that we can embed into our own universe. These things are governed by precise axioms. By contrast, we don't have such well-developed "unicorn universe".

Indeed. The current better known attempts at a "unicorn universe" have problems with power scaling and the square-cube law. https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/mrs81/accordi...

Do you have a good definition of what constitutes a "well-developed" universe?

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Re:What Even Is a Number? by AgentME on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @05:20PM (#19212629)

>Do you have a good definition of what constitutes a "well-developed" universe?

An easy definition would be one where everyone agrees on the exact mechanics and sequence of states. The fibonacci sequence is well-developed: it has an exact definition that every competent simulator can simulate the same way. If I say my favorite number is the 1000th item in the sequence (starting with 0, 1, 1 as items #1, #2, #3), then everyone can calculate the 1000th item the same way.

If we all try to talk about what happens in the "unicorn universe", everyone has their own different ideas about that. There's no unambiguous rules for how the unicorn universe is calculated. Everyone has a different "unicorn universe" in their heads, and each of those universes operates on our own mind's whims rather than any rules we can describe to each other.

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Re:What Even Is a Number? by stcredzero on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @07:44PM (#19213521)

If we all try to talk about what happens in the "unicorn universe", everyone has their own different ideas about that.

Homo sapiens has this issue with this universe. Even if you subset that group to just scientists, there are still differences of opinion.

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Re:What Even Is a Number? by AgentME on Thursday February 21, 2019 @03:07AM (#19215316)

Reality itself is well-defined in that it acts consistently with itself. We as humans don't have a well-defined embedding of this universe into itself. We would need to know the complete underlying rules of physics for that.

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