AlexMennen comments on [LINK] Cantor's theorem, the prisoner's dilemma, and the halting problem - Less Wrong

13 Post author: Qiaochu_Yuan 30 June 2013 08:26PM

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Comment author: AlexMennen 01 July 2013 03:42:20PM *  3 points [-]

Typo in the first proof of Cantor's theorem (you got in vs not in mixed up in the second case).

I hadn't noticed before that Cantor's theorem and Russell's paradox were exactly the same argument. This makes me curious as to how Cantor failed to notice Russell's paradox.

Edit: It appears that Cantor actually did figure out that Cantor's theorem leads to things like Russell's paradox in 1899, two years before Russell did.

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 01 July 2013 06:52:55PM 1 point [-]

Thanks for the correction! I think the main impediment to noticing Russell's paradox was having the idea that something like that existed to be noticed.