Re:`Alien Calculus’ Could Save Particle Physics from Infinities
by staunton on Friday April 07, 2023 @07:40PM
(#35488610)
> whether the physical world is perfectly or merely highly consistent
What does that even mean? The physical world is not a formal system in any obvious sense.
Nor does "consistent" apply to mathematics, by the way, only to formal systems used/studied by mathematics. You cannot mathematically prove or disprove that mathematics is consistent or define precisely what that would mean because mathematics itself isn't rigorously defined. If you define it as "whatever mathematicians are doing", I guess it's in some sense inconsistent, since mathematicians often disagree.
What does that even mean? The physical world is not a formal system in any obvious sense.
Nor does "consistent" apply to mathematics, by the way, only to formal systems used/studied by mathematics. You cannot mathematically prove or disprove that mathematics is consistent or define precisely what that would mean because mathematics itself isn't rigorously defined. If you define it as "whatever mathematicians are doing", I guess it's in some sense inconsistent, since mathematicians often disagree.