Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Avoiding doomsday: a "proof" of the self-indication assumption - Less Wrong

18 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 23 September 2009 02:54PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (228)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 23 September 2009 06:20:03PM 1 point [-]

Absolute existence is inconsistent

Wha?

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 23 September 2009 08:29:15PM *  1 point [-]

In the sense that "every mathematical structure exists", the concept of "existence" is trivial, as from it follows every "structure", which is after a fashion a definition of inconsistency (and so seems to be fair game for informal use of the term). Of course, "existence" often refers to much more meaningful "existence in the same world", with reasonably constrained senses of "world".

Comment author: cousin_it 24 September 2009 08:19:44AM 0 points [-]

"every mathematical structure exists"

How do you know that?

Comment author: loqi 25 September 2009 03:52:33AM 0 points [-]

An ensemble-type definition of existence seems more like an attempt to generalize the term than it does an empirical statement of fact. What would it even mean for a mathematical structure to not exist?