Re: Storing data and code in a Db with LISP-like interface

J M Davitt wrote:
> vc wrote:

[...]
> >>And I've felt that Leopold got it backwards: the reals are
> >>real, integers are perceptions.
> >
> >
> > So Pi or e are more real to you than two or three of your friends ?
>
> We're talking numbers, not friends. It has to do with the perception
> of "integer-ness." Take a tree.
>
> "How many trees is that?"
>
> "Uh, one."
>
> Cut off a branch. "How many trees is that?"
>
> "Still, one."
>
> Hmm. Removing a branch didn't change it's tree-ness. But if you
> continue removing branches, eventually the answer will be, "That's
> not a tree; none." And the branches removed aren't counted. But
> they're there.

Your storytelling has zip to do with the idea of counting. How is chopping trees relevant to counting them? You appear to be claiming that say measuring a circumference or just a stick length is somehow more intuitive[than] and predates counting pebbles. However, if you insist that your brain functions this way, so be it.

> My point is that decimating a continuum of values and quantizing
> those values as integers seems to be a perceptual phenomenon.

It may "seem" so to you personally, but neither you know (unless you have divine inspiration inaccessible to the rest of us) whether the 'reality' is continuous or discreet, nor is there any historical or lingustic evidence that would corroborate your speculation that reals are somehow more real than naturals.

[...]
>. And, yes,the
> formalists may get tied up in a chicken and the egg conundrum -
> "Are integers a subset of rationals? How can you have rationals
> without integers?" - and I certainly don't have the answer.

The 'formalists' of course may do so if they have no clue what they are talking about.

 > >>Isn't it {{}}, {{},{{}}}, ...?
> >
> >
> > It is if you mean 1 and 2.
>
> Yup. And isn't that what the quoted post was describing?

I do not know, the original post seems terribly confused about the whole notion of naturals. Received on Sat May 06 2006 - 21:16:04 CEST