Jim Fehlinger wrote:
>
> Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 4/2/2001 3:15:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> > sentience@pobox.com writes:
> >
> > > ...might be true but TOTALLY unproveable (i.e., the consequence
> > > of an infinite number of independent mathematical facts)...
> > > I find it both plausible and chilling.
>
> > I wonder why E.Y. finds this "chilling"?
>
> Presumably because... that sort of indeterminacy about
> the world is **not** what most mathematicians bargained
> for; so it's not surprising that they would find it both
> deeply disturbing and rather demoralizing.
It also smacks of a cosmic practical joke. Think of
the famous Peanuts cartoon with Lucy holding a football
for Charlie Brown to kick, which she snatches away
over and over again at the last second. Imagine Lucy
as God (maybe the Beatles were on to something when they
titled that song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" ;-> ).
Jim F.
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