« Welcome to the Twenty-First Century | Main | CNN Reporter Accidentally Admits Saddam Had Chemical Weapons »

March 28, 2007

The Cat's Meow - 03/28/07: Omega-Inconsistent

by Ferdinand T Cat
In mathematics, there is a concept called omega inconsistency, where you prove that there must be some whole number i with a given property, but when you pick any individual number, you can prove it isn't i. There is a similar concept in politics. For example, you can state that you support the troops even though you don't like soldiers, or that you love America even though you really hate Americans.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


# At Wed 12:10 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (3) | More The Cat's Meow | Tags:

Trackback Pings

Comments

Wow, the omega inconsistency? I must've been out of school the day the teacher discussed that. Anyway I like the neat way you tie it in with politics. Sounds quite scientific.


Posted by: Right Jokiester at March 28, 2007 6:41 PM

It's not in the normal mathematics curriculum. The concept is used in Kurt Godel's proof of the incompleteness of mathematics, and Kurt Godel was Bruce's boyhood hero. He's explained it to his children at least 200 times since I started living here.


Posted by: Ferdy Author Profile Page at March 28, 2007 6:57 PM

Thanks. I picked two of his books off Amazon: On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel (by Rebecca Goldstein). I hope I can read these. My last book was Cat in the Hat.


Posted by: Right Jokester at March 28, 2007 8:16 PM

Leave a comment

HTML is not allowed in comments; however, if you put in a raw URL (http://www.somewhere.com/page.html) it will automatically be converted to a link.. Also, it is likely your comment will not appear unless you refresh the page manually after posting it.

Leave a comment