An attack on modern science (The limitations of science)

by dhw, Sunday, February 01, 2015, 19:24 (3371 days ago) @ George Jelliss

GEORGE: There's an even heavier going video lecture on the same page as the one I linked to. It is by Woodin on the Continuum Hypothesis. That is the hypothesis that there is no infinity between the infinities of natural and real numbers. It has famously been shown by Gödel and Cohen that under the usual assumptions of set theory the hypothesis can be true or false. It just depends what axioms you assume. This proves to me that the whole business of transfinite infinities is all nonsense.
In Woodin's lecture he surprisingly tries to get round this by introducing the Multiverse concept! But ultimately he concludes this doesn't work either. 
I must admit I skipped a lot of the end section of his lecture, but at the end he admits that everything is back at square one.
This is why I don't place any credence in theories of the universe that involve infinite regression in time.-Communication isn't easy at the best of times, but I'm sure you'll understand that for a layman maths talk is mighty difficult to follow. There are moments when I get the impression that it means the opposite of ordinary talk! For instance, if a hypothesis can be true or false, or if everything is back at square one, I don't know how one can draw a firm conclusion about the subject under consideration. In my previous response I wondered why you thought maths had all the answers anyway, and I still don't see how anyone can prove the claim that there is no such thing as infinity, eternity, before...Having debated with you over so many years, I'm sure you have good reason for your beliefs - but then so has David, and his beliefs are the opposite of yours. Hey ho, the trouble with being in the middle of the road is that you can get run over from both directions.