On 22 October 2013 10:51, John Mikes <jami...@gmail.com> wrote: > > About "17"? I am no mathematician, so a fantasy of math-systems is free to > me. I figure a dynamic number-world flipping between series of its own > integers, like the base of 'your' arithmetic and another one like > expressable as > 1.7, 3.4, 5.1... in which 17 is a "tenfold" of the first one, not a prime. > This would be with all the 'primes' in our primitive number-world. > Flip-flop. (Just musing!) > > The point about 17 being prime is that it's prime within a certain system of maths, and *that* fact is invariant across all possible universes. There are other mathematical systems in which 17 isn't prime, and those will also hold true across all possible universes. Universes don't come with different systems of maths attached.
At least that's the idea, and the point, of arithmetical realism. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
