No but I do enjoy playing devils advocate sometimes. So to continue the thought experiment...
All numbers are arbitrary symbols we apply to represent quantity. Therefore if we discard convention and say instead that 2 is really a symbol meaning two and one half units of a given quantity then 2 + 2 does in fact equal 5. I mean if we can say that A = 10, B = 11 and etc, one should certainly be able to say that 2 = two and one half units. Oh hello Mr. Wells! :) Sorry couldn't resist On 9/26/07, Levi Pearson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Steve <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > > Same thing with computing. > > How much of computing science is going to become irrelevant should > > quantum computing take off? How many new laws are waiting to be > > discovered? > > I think you just completely missed the part where we actually > understand what's computable. Yes, this even applies to quantum > computers. We have a pretty good idea of what they can do, too, and > it's not magic. > > There are probably new laws to be discovered in computing, and we > still haven't proved whether P = NP or not, but when we prove > something in computer science, it's proven. I don't know how I can be > any more clear than that. > > Next you'll be telling me that it's not completely impossible for 2 + > 2 to equal 5. > > --Levi > > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
