[extropy-chat] Accelerated wound healing by the body electric

scerir scerir at libero.it
Thu Aug 3 17:51:04 UTC 2006


> "God doesn't play dice with the universe." 
> - Albert Einstein

Not sure he wrote exactly that. In a letter to Max Born 
(4 December 1926), he wrote: 'Quantum mechanics is very 
impressive. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet 
the real thing. The theory produces a good deal but hardly 
brings us closer to the secret of the Old one. I am 
at all events convinced that He does not play dice.'

s.

'I raised just this objection [about limits of Platonism] 
with the (extreme) ultrafinitist Yessenin Volpin during 
a lecture of his. He asked me to be more specific. 
I then proceeded to start with 2^1 and asked him whether 
this is "real" or something to that effect. He virtually 
immediately said yes. Then I asked about 2^2, and he again 
said yes, but with a perceptible delay. Then 2^3, and yes, 
but with more delay. This continued for a couple of more times, 
till it was obvious how he was handling this objection. 
Sure, he was prepared to always answer yes, but he was going 
to take 2^100 times as long to answer yes to 2^100 then 
he would to answering 2^1. There is no way that I could get 
very far with this.'
-Harvey M. Friedman








More information about the extropy-chat mailing list