[extropy-chat] Role of Observer is not Relevant

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On 3/27/07, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 27, 2007 at 04:04:15PM -0400, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
>
> > ### Do prime numbers exist? I have never seen one. What would it mean
>
> Some animals can count, but only people (as far as we know) do primes.
>
> > to "observe" a prime number, or indeed any mathematically describable
> > structure?
>
> You can't. They don't exist, but in people's heads, and in hardware
> derived from people's heads.

### What does it mean "not to exist" for a number? Does the number 2
not exist? If it doesn't exist, is it equal to nothing?

Do chickens exist? If chickens exist, how do we know they do, while
the number 2 doesn't?

How come numbers "exist" in silicon, or gray matter but not in the
number of chickens?

-----------------------------------

>
> Neither plasma nor interstellar ice grains can count. It takes people
> or computers to do that.

### Some mathematical predictions of quantum theory have been
confirmed to the 7th or 9th (?) significant digit. Not only does
plasma count, it counts a lot.

Rafal