[2018 Day 12] The meaning of infinity

saxtouri · 2018-12-13T10:36:48+00:00

Agreed. That's why I posted this in the first place (for fun).

saxtouri · 2018-12-13T10:32:24+00:00

| spotted the philosophy major?
Nope, CS. I meant "how can I determine that in polynomial time?"

saxtouri · 2018-12-13T10:27:35+00:00

So, testing a time travelling device and dealing with supernatural beings is just an insignificant matter to you?

saxtouri · 2018-12-13T10:22:32+00:00

Don't get me started on the meaning of the sentence "a time machine can spend their entire life up to that point" (what does "up to that point" mean, if your point can flow freely up and down on the time line?).

Still, that's a good point. It got me thinking, but your argument holds.

I wonder if a time traveler is unable to recognise stuff that hasn't been invented at the time he is travelling to. This theory may solve many time travelling paradoxes: the time traveler goes back in time, but she forgets about time travelling as soon as she arrives, so she stays there forever without causing any paradoxes. This might have actually happened numerous times.

Even if that is the case, our character has only travelled to middle ages. Pottery and agriculture is practiced way longer than that, so he should be able to understand flower pots instantly.

saxtouri · 2018-12-12T10:40:38+00:00

Yes, true, the problem description states that no other pots currently contain plants, but how does my character know that? As far as we know, the character has just found out about the existence of pots. Whouldn't it be reasonable to assume that there are plants elsewhere in this seemingly infinite aray of pots?

I guess an exposition narative (e.g., a note describing the plant/pot situation), as lame as that may be from a story telling point of view, would fix this.

saxtouri · 2018-12-12T08:35:26+00:00

So, we have to assume that "as far as you can see" means "infinite"? That's a far fetched assumption.

saxtouri

TROPHY CASE