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Just because you can't record something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
by enkid 2y ago
Just because you can't record something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
- lisper 2y agoWho said anything about recording? What would the subjective experience of measuring something with infinite precision possibly be like?
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> would require somehow recording an infinite amount of information... >> Just because you can't record something... >>> Who said anything about recording?
- lisper 2y agoSorry, my mistake, I was distracted when I wrote that reply. Yes, I did write that, but it's not actually essential to the point I was trying to make, which was: what could the result of measuring anything to an infinite precision possibly look like?
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> what could the result of measuring anything to an infinite precision possibly look like? Depends on what you're measuring. To illustrate why that isn't a facetious response, consider the difference between 'measuring' pi, 'measuring' a meter and 'measuring' the mass of a proton. (Or, for that matter, the relative mass of three of something to one of it.)
- lisper 2y agoHow do you measure pi?
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> How do you measure pi? Pick your method. It’s the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.
- winwang 2y agoConsidering that we don't know the value of pi (not that we could write it out nor read it), I'm not sure your definition of "measure" is the same as mine or most people's.
- Dylan16807 2y agoI think your definition of "know" is unreasonably strict. Especially because we can write out pieces of algebra that are exactly pi. I think it's reasonable to say we can't truly measure pi, though. And you can neither know nor measure a random real.
- lisper 2y ago> we can write out pieces of algebra that are exactly pi Sure, but how would you compare those against a measurement?
- Dylan16807 2y agoThat depends on how you're measuring. But the second paragraph of that post already says you can't truly measure pi.
- winwang 2y agoHmm, I should say "the numerical value of pi in base 10" (or really any rational base), even if we were to weaken that with the qualifier "a to arbitrary degree of precision". We know pi in the sense of "a unique real number satisfying many useful properties".
- 2y ago
- d_tr 2y agoYou'd need to somehow record refinements endlessly? I don't get what you're getting at.
- asdasdsddd 2y agoSure but i can invent infinitely many unfalsifiable claims that mean nothing
- mannykannot 2y agoThis brings to mind one of my favorite quotes: The Schrödinger wave-function is expressed in a unit which is the square root of an inverse cubic meter. This fact alone makes clear that the wave-function is an abstraction, forever hidden from our view. Nobody will ever measure directly the square root of an inverse cubic meter. Freeman Dyson, Why is Maxwell’s Theory so hard to understand? https://www.clerkmaxwellfoundation.org/DysonFreemanArticle.pdf https://www.clerkmaxwellfoundation.org/DysonFreemanArticle.p...