Re: virus: Pancritical rationality

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Sun, 6 Apr 1997 00:37:40 -0800 (PST)


> >>If, assuming Raven #X is black, Raven #(X+1) can be proven to black, and
> >>Raven #1 is observed to be black, then all ravens are black.
> >
> >That is analytic induction and is logically valid in mathematics. (Of
> >course it applies to things like numbers, not ravens).
>
> you could always represent ravens by their genetic code, and
> possible--though I think no--prove that for an animal to be within the
> defenition of the species.. hmm.. looks like this is turning into something
> other than induction. And having just seen a D- (as opposed to B) horror
> movie on tnt, I think I'll stop.

Theoretically, in the long-distant future of super-intelligent beings,
if all the fundamental forces of nature are quantized (as it appears
likely they might be, even though we have no good theory of quantum
gravity just yet), mathematical induction may very well be applicable
to quantized physical phenomena.

-- 
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>  <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC