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This is a trivially absurd argument for two reasons: First, it would be extremely straightforward to make a measuring device that spits out irrational numbers.
by dogecoinbase 11y ago
This is a trivially absurd argument for two reasons:
First, it would be extremely straightforward to make a measuring device that spits out irrational numbers. Take the output, truncate at half the accuracy, and append an irrational to the output.
Second, outputting an irrational number as a measurement does not imply that it's able to output any member of the complement of the rationals in the reals. You also conflate the computable numbers with the describable numbers -- but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you believe strong Church-Turing and aren't just committing an elementary error.
There are ways in which set theoretic concerns apply to the real world, but they are few and far between, and this is not among them. You're essentially in line with people who attempt to use Goedel's proofs to make grandiose pronouncement about human thought. It. Does. Not. Apply.
- pash 11y ago> ... outputting an irrational number as a measurement does not* imply that it's able to output any member of the complement of the rationals in the reals.* It's my fault, I'm sure, but you have missed the point entirely. The argument to which I responded, and which I extended absurdly, does imply that every real number is a valid output of a chance setup, and further assumes that each real number, including "any member of the complement of the rationals in the reals", is an equally likely outcome of that setup. That is anyway the conventionally understood definition of "pick a real number uniformly at random between 0 and 1". I would attempt to clarify the rest of what I wrote, but your condescension dissuades me.