Re:An intutive counterexample to the axiom of choice
by jvanderbot on Monday January 23, 2023 @09:36AM
(#34489210)
Like f(x) = 5?
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Re:An intutive counterexample to the axiom of choice
by yaakov34 on Monday January 23, 2023 @09:58AM
(#34489500)
Wouldn't work, since 5 is not a member of the set of indescribable numbers. I am still not sure that the original example is good, since serious difficulties with the axiom of choice have to do with infinite collections of sets, especially uncountably infinite, not with choosing a member of a single difficult-to-describe set. But you can't handle these non-describable numbers very easily.
Re:An intutive counterexample to the axiom of choice
by davrosthedalek on Monday January 23, 2023 @10:03AM
(#34489567)
That's fine. The point is that the x is also not in the set of indescribable numbers (because you have described it with f(x)=5), assuming f is describable.
Re:An intutive counterexample to the axiom of choice
by davrosthedalek on Monday January 23, 2023 @10:02AM
(#34489558)
The problem is that for every finite description of f, the x that fulfills f(x)=5 is not in the set of numbers than cannot be described by a finite set of symbols. (I assume here that there is only one solution of f(x)=5)