kpreid comments on The Amanda Knox Test: How an Hour on the Internet Beats a Year in the Courtroom - Less Wrong

42 Post author: komponisto 13 December 2009 04:16AM

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

Comments (632)

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

Comment author: kpreid 22 February 2010 01:53:09AM 0 points [-]

That's called a limit. What's special is not the “zero” but the “infinity”: you don't talk about a value “infinity” (attempting to have one causes you to lose various other useful properties), but rather that as some input increases without bound, the output approaches zero.

“The limit of 1/x as x approaches infinity is zero."

Comment author: AnnaGilmour 23 February 2010 01:47:46AM -1 points [-]

The concept of limits is a great way to look at this. A limit is a thing unto its own, a complex statement indicating, confirmed as much as is humanly possible.

Another notion is what Goedel brings to the table. His contribution of something being consistent or complete is relevant.