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curtisblaineyesterday at 2:14 PM3 repliesview on HN

How is it a paradox? Isn't this just a proof that there are many unnamed things, but no unnameable ones?


Replies

arjieyesterday at 7:50 PM

Many ancient paradoxes are not really paradoxes. Zeno's ones are resolved today with infinite series.

But this is a real one. Is it possible to describe an arbitrary real number? Almost all reals are not describable. But you cannot find a single such number.

The 'paradox' is that the search itself is self-failing - a broken strategy. Of course, now we have the language of sets and functions between them and cardinalities and we resolve this for us in a way that is meaningful. But still now you know the 'existence' of this thing? Can't be described.

It's interesting because of the property of creating with finite words universes of infiniteness.

WillAdamsyesterday at 2:25 PM

Agreed.

This is the stuff of magic and folklore, and neatly resolved by Ursula K. LeGuin in _A Wizard of Earthsea_.

bwfan123yesterday at 2:59 PM

> Isn't this just a proof that there are many unnamed things, but no unnameable ones?

Where is it a proof that there are many unnamed things ? I could only see it as an argument that there are no "unnameable" things.

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