FOM: FoundationalCompleteness

Martin Davis martind at cs.berkeley.edu
Mon Nov 3 17:11:13 EST 1997


At 08:24 AM 11/3/97 -0800, Vaughan R. Pratt wrote:
>I apologize in advance for continuing to use physics as an example.
>Unfortunately it's the only example I have where dualism has succeeded.
>I'm hoping that the metamathematical theorems some of us on the
>transformational side of things are shooting for will make foundations
>a second such example.
>
>No, no, you don't understand.  Think of what happened to last century's
>wave theory of light.  No one's replaced it this century, it's just
>been rendered more consistent by the addition of a particle theory of
>light.
>

I find it curious that quantum mechanics is being held up as a paradigm for
what might be hoped for in FOM.

Paraphrasing Feynman: "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you're
mistaken."

Martin Davis




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