Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
(June 8, 2010 at 2:25 am)The_Flying_Skeptic Wrote:
(June 8, 2010 at 2:00 am)Saerules Wrote:
TFS Wrote:the 'a' in your case is a property, not an object.
And are you suggesting that an 'object' is not an attribute given to otherwise meaningless matter?
understanding how logics and math applies to any universe is easier when you think about it mathematically. you wouldn't group happiness and humans in a group of two unless you were grouping them as two concepts that are different but equally concepts. the 'law' of logics i was describing is as simple as you can't exist and not exist at the same time.
Quote:why not 2 + 2 = 22: because in any universe you should be able to count to four with your fingers.
(June 8, 2010 at 2:00 am)Saerules Wrote: I can already refute that, in this very universe. A man has only 3 fingers. 2 on his left hand... one on his right. Similarly... why should one with at least 22 fingers not be able to count to 22 with them?
it's easy to create new counting systems but they are just different ways to describe the same thing. like how a binary counting system may be translated to our base 10 counting system in our universe (see you don't even need to go to other universes to make new counting systems). you must be sleepy... 2 + 2 = 4 in a base 10 counting system in any universe. my example of you counting four fingers had nothing to do with your fingers but just you acknowledging 4 objects, no matter the counting system you choose.
Quote:If you teleported to a different universe and somehow you were in a bubble that contains the conditions in our universe that support life, you would still be able to point to four objects in this other universe.
(June 8, 2010 at 2:00 am)Saerules Wrote: Surely not necessarily... what if there were no objects in this other universe? Perhaps one's ability to point in this universe is lacking? Maybe there is but one great object in this universe? Perhaps one can count to every number save 4 in this universe, for it does not exist? Perhaps numbers do not exist in this universe... and by chance perhaps logic does not either?
yeah i thought of an empty universe. the laws of logic still apply. you have to use logic to deduce that the universe is empty right? you made a numerical analysis to say that there are 0 objects in the universe besides yourself. i guess saying that logics applies to an empty universe isn't helpful or useful in a similar way to the last man on the world saying he has morals (how is having morals useful when you're the last person on Earth?). numbers always exist. there may not be an intelligence to acknowledge numbers or verbalize numbers but wherever there is an intelligence there is numerical analysis. unless you want to say that logics and math don't exist until they are acknowledged by intelligence in that universe.
Quote:Intelligent lifeforms in different universes would use math in the same way we do.
(June 8, 2010 at 2:00 am)Saerules Wrote: Why? Perhaps they are even using the same 'system' of math, but have discovered something about it that we have not, and are thusly using it differently. About like a modern society's mathematics compared to the math of a stone age civilization And then again... perhaps their math is formulated entirely differently, and cannot occur in our universe. And then again... it may be that math simply does not exist in a different universe... or perhaps even "intelligent lifeforms" do not exist in the universe to discover and make use of the math
maybe they've solved more problems in math that are useful in their universe. i'd think that all mathematical problems in our universe would be useful to humanoid life in other universes, under the assumption that all universes are at least 4 dimensional but even in a 2 dimensional universe (nonsense to me) the same logic we use would be applied to come to conclusions.
when i said that they are using math in the same way i do i meant in its simplest form. i didn't mean that whatever civilization may exist in other universes must be at the same level as we are in math.... calculus would be applicable to any universe in solving for the area of irregular shapes or the rate of change of a specific point of an irregular 'path' if i may.
I think that what your arguments point to is that it is very difficult, if not impossible, for us humans to conceive of another universe in which logic and mathematics do not apply.
However, its quite another matter to assume that such illogical universes are in fact impossible. Why should possible universes be limited to what humans can conceive of?
He who desires to worship God must harbor no childish illusions about the matter but bravely renounce his liberty and humanity.
Mikhail Bakunin
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything
Friedrich Nietzsche