Re:AlphaFold: a solution to a 50-year-old grand challenge in...
by fpoling on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @05:11AM
(#25263954)
One cannot define the notion of “exist” without explicitly or implicitly referring to time. So the question of existence without time reduces to absurdity like can one exist without existing?
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Re:AlphaFold: a solution to a 50-year-old grand challenge in...
by drdeca on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @02:13PM
(#25268678)
Huh? How is it necessary to speak of time when discussing whether there exists e.g. a solution to a set of equations?
Or whether there is a finite simple group with given number of elements, or the like?
Re:AlphaFold: a solution to a 50-year-old grand challenge in...
by fpoling on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @06:09PM
(#25271274)
Does the solution to an equation exist before one stated the equation? Does a particular phrase exist before one has written it? Does it continue to exist after all its copies were erased? And even if one answers positively to such questions based on a belief (it is not provable), like "yes, they always exist", one has to define what "always" means.
Re:AlphaFold: a solution to a 50-year-old grand challenge in...
by drdeca on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @07:34PM
(#25271957)
Their existence is not at all dependent on such things. (Note that I didn’t use the word “always”.)
If the answer to a question of “Why [...]_1?” would be “Because there is a [...]_2 such that [...]_3 .”, then there is such a [...]_2 such that [...]_3 . (Possible exception : if “because you asked that question” would be part of the answer.)