On 02 Dec 2014, at 22:42, LizR wrote:
On 2 December 2014 at 22:56, Bruno Marchal <marc...@ulb.ac.be> wrote:
On 02 Dec 2014, at 01:18, LizR wrote:
Unicorns exist, but they are more commonly called rhinos.
Hmmm... OK. With a large definition of unicorn. I mean those are
very large unicorns!
The point is that may have been the origin of the legend -
traveller's tales that got distorted. Plus the narwhal horn as
mentioned by John.
Of course unicorns may exist, in that evolution may have produced
something that looks like a unicorn on a planet somewhere. They
aren't that unlikely (unless you include the stuff about virgins
and so on).
In "our universe"? I don't know. Perhaps if life itself is not that
rare, and I have no clues on this. I have evidence that life is
frequent, and that life is not frequent. They compensate each other.
Yes, that's why I only said they "may" exist. Given that it seems a
reasonable adaptation that could easily occur (unlike say cows able
to jump over the moon or fire-breathing dragons....probably). So if
life is common enough in the universe, evolution could have produced
something fairly unicornish somewhere.
Although in the arithmetical reality, there are infinities of
dreams, including sharable first person plural coherent long one, in
which unicorn (with again some large definition) can exist.
OK, although I don't know how that works I am prepared to believe
you (like Harry Potter universes in the MWI)
Of course, with my definition of unicorn, as *fictitious* objects,
belonging only to fairy tales, they don't exist, even in arithmetic.
So something that only looked like a unicorn wouldn't count...? :-)
That's the point, and you did illustrate it well when mentioning the
rhinos. Nobody would pretend that now we know that unicorn exists,
because of the rhinos, unless (s)he is in a context where unicorn is
taken literally as meaning "one corn". Unicorn, like Sherlock Holmes,
are terms normally denoting fictive object/notion, unlike PI, sqrt(2),
or the Higgs bosons which exist in some form (algorithm for making
prediction, for example).
That the idea of unicorns comes from the rhino is an interesting idea,
but it would not make the unicorn *of the fairy tale* into physical
existence. They do exist, but only in fairy tales (which is different
of not existing at all or not conceivable, etc).
Bruno
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