Infinity, Sets, and Causality

[--Pete]

Hi,

Er, discussing politics or religion without a firm basis in either is also a waste of time - but people do it, and can still get something out of it.[right][snapback]98830[/snapback][/right]

Not at all. Neither politics nor religion are axiom based logical systems. Thus everybody can have and does have a basis in them, whether that basis is formed from sound opinion or superficial prejudice. Indeed, discussion about topics such as religion and politics end up being discussions about the postulates (the axioms), which is where most discussions in mathematics start. Questioning the axioms themselves is meta-mathematics, a branch of philosophy often practiced by mathematicians.

Writing a post like mine was an exercise to me of explaining something that I liked when I learned about it, that came up in another discussion.  What it, of course, proves (and I realized this while writing it) was that I didn't understand it (or remember it) as well as I thought - there is nothing like trying to 'teach' something to someone else to get your brain moving on a subject.

A good reason to post. Since a lot of reference material is available on the web, perhaps it would have been a good idea to have refreshed your memory prior to posting. After all, if your intent was to teach, then you probably did not want to spread disinformation.

While I understand that it may take years and years and a degree and whatnot to fully understand something, I bet something could be done to improve my analysis skills and make my post less a waste of time.

Yes, and it is amazingly simple. If you find analysis interesting, then pick up a textbook on the subject; there are a couple available, used, from amazon.com for less than $50. The price is comparable to a game, and the time you'll get to enjoy it is probably longer than Black & White ;)

Oh, and BTW -- it does no good (or not much) to just read the book. You also need to work out the problems. But not all of them, just those you can't figure out.

Of course, if you are really interested, you might be able to find a course, but that depends on where you live.

Sorry, but two of these posts have seemed too much like "sit down and shut up, little boy".

Sorry about that. But look at it from the opposite viewpoint. Asking a mathematician (or any other professional who has spent years learning his specialty) to explain his specialty to you, in detail, and well enough that you can argue with him, is insulting. By doing so, you are either implying that he is mentally defective or that you are so far superior in intellect, that you can learn in a few hours what took him years. And being offended when that is pointed out to you is pretty immature.

I wish I did something well enough to be considered an expert in it...I program computers, do some mechanical design, carpentry, can sail, write fiction occasionally (badly) and non-fiction (instruction manuals and research) a lot, can't really sketch but do some clay sculpting, I sew occaisionally, know how to fence well enough to teach beginners, am pretty good at creating and revising Standard Operating Procedures (relates pretty closely to programming, in the end), know enough math and physics to get in trouble (obviously), have a pretty solid grounding in electric and electronics theory and application, and about a billion other things...I'm hungry for knowledge and experience, if not for the classroom environment.

Being a generalist is good, and generally more useful than being an expert in some extremely narrow field. But if you are hungry for knowledge and experience, perhaps it would be better to make a post with questions than one with (possibly incorrect) answers.

The list of things I do badly is pretty easy: I am the only person I know who can kill a fake plant :P

That is impressive :)

--Pete