Bruno: one of your tiny little aberrations: how did "existence" changed in your argument into "physical existence"? I argued that there is no such difference, since nobody can identify the term "physical" in unquestionable format. Just like the "Godcreated Earth". JM
On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 5:01 AM, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 02 Dec 2014, at 22:42, LizR wrote: > > On 2 December 2014 at 22:56, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> 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 > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/ > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
