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0 pointsMichaelBurge9y ago0 comments

And then there's the Axiom of Choice and all that it brings. There's a Hamel Basis for the reals which is provably impossible to construct(since it's equivalent to AC).

Do you believe in the existence of things that are provably impossible to construct?

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btilly9y ago

As it happens, I don't.

That said I'm quite able to quote and do mathematics that depends on axioms that I do not accept. I can be quite the formalist when it is convenient. But I privately think of it as formal bullshit. And don't like seeing people who haven't accepted it beaten over the head until they do.

Smaug1239y ago

For that matter, do you believe in really, really big integers?

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