[FRIAM] idle questions while in self-quarantine

[uǝlƃ ☣]

But there really are no stupid questions. An answer like "you're not allowed to ask" doesn't help. A better answer would be an explanation of undefined terms and how they impact the body of theory. A good example is division by 0. We're taught (in what? elementary school?) that the sentence c/0 is meaningless, undefined. But then we're taught in analysis that c/n as n→0 is meaningful. What's missing in these discussions is *when* or how meaning is established/bound to the alphabet and sentences and when/how the "ol' switcheroo" happened from one body of theory to another.

This is common with GUMmers (Grand Unified Modelers, which Nick & Dave are calling "monists"). The unifiers often gloss over the process of semantic binding and often (presumably accidentally) bait-and-switch the body of theory being used. Pluralists, on the other hand (try to) mark these events explicitly.


On 3/30/20 11:52 AM, Prof David West wrote:
> thanks, that brought back a conversation I had with him on this topic. It has to do with frames of reference being relative. Absent a universal constant frame of reference, you cannot ask "from whence" or "where to" in any meaningful way.

> 
> On Mon, Mar 30, 2020, at 12:44 PM, Frank Wimberly wrote:
>> Cosmology:  globally speaking, everything is moving away from everything else.  I asked Hywel can't you extrapolate backwards and determine the location of the "big bang".  He said, "You're not allowed to ask that question".  Is/was he an anti-realist?

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