kilobug comments on Robust Cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma - Less Wrong

69 Post author: orthonormal 07 June 2013 08:30AM

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Comment author: kilobug 07 June 2013 08:58:25PM 5 points [-]

Sounds awesome, great job !

But there is something I didn't get : what does Con() mean in PA+Con(PA) ? Maybe it's stupid question and everyone is supposed to know, but I don't remember ever encountering that symbol, and I can't find it's meaning, neither on Wikipedia nor on mathworld...

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 07 June 2013 09:13:53PM *  11 points [-]

It means consistent. PA + Con(PA) means PA together with the axiom that PA is consistent (which can be expressed in PA because PA can express "PA proves X," so "PA is consistent" can be expressed as "PA does not prove a contradiction").

Comment author: AustinLorenz 10 June 2013 08:49:23PM 4 points [-]

Actually, "not proving a falsehood" is not the same as being consistent; assuming that PA is consistent, the theory PA+~Con(PA) is also consistent, but proves the false statement ~Con(PA). Consistency is the weaker condition of not proving both a formula and its negation.

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 10 June 2013 09:00:46PM *  4 points [-]

I should have said "contradiction"; edited. I intended "falsehood" to mean "false in all models," not "false in the standard model."

Comment author: Cyan 09 June 2013 01:23:36AM *  3 points [-]

More concretely, "PA is consistent" can be as expressed "PA does not prove 1 = 2".