> Hi,
>
> "Gifford, Nate F" <giffon@SDCPOS3B.DAYTONOH.ncr.com>
> > ... If you can build a model with a truth value of 1 then either
> > Godel's Theorem is false or your model is equivalent to the
> > universe. You pick.
>
> False dilemma.
>
> Godel's theorem applies only to "formal systems", which means, for
> instance, that it doesn't apply to geographical maps. Lets say I want a
> model which will tell me where all the trees in my back yard are located.
> I could easily create a map, based on measurements that I took, that could
> tell me this. Using lasers for measurement, and all the rest of the
> high-tech stuff available, I could probably make the map so accurate (with
> repeated measurements, etc.) that it could predict the position of the
> trees in my yard so accurately that my human error in making the
> measurements again would be bigger than the errors on the map.
>
> For all intents and purposes, my map has a truth value of "1", as regards
> the position of trees in my yard. Yet it neither is equivalent to the
> terrain (it's still a map), nor is it a formal system (so Godel's theorem
> does not apply).
>
> Question: why do you think that ANY "map" can ever become the "terrain"
> which it is supposed to describe? (as you imply with "equivalent to the
> universe"?)
>
> ERiC
Call me totally ignorant, but what is Godel's Therom, if I can understand it
already (I'm about halfway throung Calculus IV)
-- Nathan Russell frussell@frontiernet.net
"I am confident that the Republicans will pick a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton" -Dan Quayle on the 2000 presidential election