Re: virus: Locker Room Talk

Eric Boyd (6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca)
Sat, 27 Jun 1998 20:27:44 -0400


Hi,

"Gifford, Nate F" <giffon@SDCPOS3B.DAYTONOH.ncr.com>
> ... If you can build a model with a truth value of 1 then either
> Godel's Theorem is false or your model is equivalent to the
> universe. You pick.

False dilemma.

Godel's theorem applies only to "formal systems", which means, for
instance, that it doesn't apply to geographical maps. Lets say I want a
model which will tell me where all the trees in my back yard are located.
I could easily create a map, based on measurements that I took, that could
tell me this. Using lasers for measurement, and all the rest of the
high-tech stuff available, I could probably make the map so accurate (with
repeated measurements, etc.) that it could predict the position of the
trees in my yard so accurately that my human error in making the
measurements again would be bigger than the errors on the map.

For all intents and purposes, my map has a truth value of "1", as regards
the position of trees in my yard. Yet it neither is equivalent to the
terrain (it's still a map), nor is it a formal system (so Godel's theorem
does not apply).

Question: why do you think that ANY "map" can ever become the "terrain"
which it is supposed to describe? (as you imply with "equivalent to the
universe"?)

ERiC