From: Rob Harris Cen-IT (Rob.Harris@bournemouth.gov.uk)
Date: Mon Jul 19 1999 - 05:16:20 MDT
> > It's true, I know zilch about math, but I don't hold this as relevant.
>
> You mean,"Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up."?
>
Nope. I mean I'm not concerned with the ins and outs of maths, it's
a human-created method of representing relationships and attributes of the
natural world, which aliens will sure as hell not be using in the same form.
> You make the same mistake that many one language people do about words.
> They think that c-h-i-c-k-e-n is obviously synonymous with the concept of
> a chicken that they get
> really confused when asked to use the word pollo to represent the
> concept of chicken.
>
Negative. I'd have to be retarded not to grasp this incredibly simple
concept. And I ain't. We're missing each other's points, I'm sure, cos
you're comments seem irrelevant to my intended point.
> Again, as I have said, we ourselves have come up with a number of
> different systems, including several kinds of non-euclidian geometry.
> That we continue to use the systems we do use is a result of the
> physical properties of the universe, not the properties of our minds.
>
Weak. The use of the tools we use is due to the pragmatically strong
correlation between the concepts in our head and of our notation (math) and
the natural world. They do not directly correlate, as this is the same as
saying that we completely understand the natural world in it's own terms,
which we don't. Scientists are always saying "oh, we got that wrong, but
we're closer now.", which is the way scientific models become closer to the
real truth.
> >
> > > Any species more advanced than us is going to KNOW any math that we
> > > know.
> > >
> > They will know the natural systems/laws/relationships that the math
> > describes, yes, but no way will they definitely describe it in exactly
> the
> > same way as us.
>
> We have been looking at it from a system/laws/relationships basis
>
We are now.
> , since
> any idiot knows that aliens will not be speaking our language.
>
Thank you. The language in question of course, is Math.
> They will have all the same concepts, which is what I was arguing.
Yeah. OK.
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