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Larks comments on Second-Order Logic: The Controversy - Less Wrong
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Comments (188)
I think the point of the fable is that Yesenin-Volpin was counting to each number in his head before declaring whether it was 'real' or not, so if you asked him whether 2^50 was 'real' he'd just be quiet for a really really long time.
But wouldn't that disprove ultrafinitism? All finite numbers, even 3^^^3, can be counted to (in the absence of any time limit, such as a lifespan), there's just no human who really wants to.
Well, that's what the anti-ultrafinitists say. It is precisely the contention of the ultrafinitists that you couldn't "count to 3^^^3", whatever that might mean.
Hmm.
So, it's not sufficient to define a set of steps that determine a number... it must be possible to execute them? That's a rather pragmatic approach. Albeit it one you'd have to keep updating if our power to compute and comprehend lengthier series of steps grows faster than you predict.
No, ultrafinitism is not a doctrine about our practical counting capacities. Ultrafinitism holds that you may not have actually denoted a number by '3^^^3', because there is no such number.
Utlrafrinitists tend no to specfify the highest number, to prevent people adding one to it.
Hence "may not"