On Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 12:45:31 PM UTC-6, Brent wrote:
>
>
>
> On 1/17/2019 12:22 AM, agrays...@gmail.com <javascript:> wrote:
>
>
> *Later I'll post some questions I have about your derivation of the Planck
> length, but for now here's a philosophical question; Is there any
> difference between the claim that space is discrete, from the claim or
> conjecture that we cannot in principle measure a length shorter than the
> Planck length? *
> *TIA, AG *
>
>
> The theory that predicts there is a shortest measured interval assumes a
> continuum. There's no logical contradiction is this. But physicists tend
> to have a positivist attitude and think that a theory that assumes things,
> like arbitrarily short intervals, might be better expressed and simpler in
> some way that avoids those assumptions. This attitude does not assume the
> mathematics itself is the reality, but only a description of reality; so
> there can be different descriptions of the same reality.
>
> Brent
>
*A* theory that does this assumes a continuous mathematics.
But that doesn't mean *every* theory has to.
As Max Tegmark's little lecture to physicists says:
Our challenge as physicists is to discover ... infinity-free equations.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2015/02/20/infinity-ruining-physics/#.XEDdLs9KiCQ
Unless he is wrong in his premise, of course!
- pt
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