News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence. Parent comment

Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence by solidasparagus on Monday June 22, 2020 @03:57AM (#23598125)
I don't think that's the right way to think about infinity. Just because the chances are infinite and you know goals are possible, it does not mean that there will be infinite goals. There are infinite numbers between 4.0 and 6.0 but only one of them is a prime.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence by juki on Monday June 22, 2020 @07:22AM (#23599055)
> There are infinite numbers between 4.0 and 6.0 but only one of them is a prime.

Primality only applies to natural numbers, so there can't be primes between 4.0 and 6.0. There is one between 4 and 6, but that's a finite range.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence by solidasparagus on Monday June 22, 2020 @12:12PM (#23601858)
The concept holds. Perhaps the example isn't great, I'm not sure - but since when does 'the set of numbers between 4.0 and 6.0' not include the natural number 5?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence by juki on Monday June 22, 2020 @01:11PM (#23602733)
That's a set of real numbers, and primality is not defined for real numbers, so 5.0 can't be a prime. The whole concept is just not applicable unless were talking about natural numbers, in which case the set is finite.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence by solidasparagus on Tuesday June 23, 2020 @07:03AM (#23612343)
Who said it's the set of real numbers? I don't remember adding any notation that specified the set must be real numbers.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence by dylan604 on Monday June 22, 2020 @10:59AM (#23600957)
But you can't score 4.1 goals. You can't take 5.9 shots on goal. Goals and attempts are integers. Ask Sheffield United.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence by solidasparagus on Monday June 22, 2020 @12:13PM (#23601870)
I feel like this misses the point. Infinite outcomes != all outcomes.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence by s1artibartfast on Monday June 22, 2020 @03:01PM (#23604402)
What you stated is certainly true, but Infinite outcomes == all possible outcomes in infinite quantity, and we know that life is possible.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence by solidasparagus on Tuesday June 23, 2020 @07:04AM (#23612349)
> infinite outcomes == all possible outcomes in infinite quantity

No it doesn't. This is a common misunderstanding of infinity. Infinite is absolutely not the same as all.

[ Parent | on HN ]