24 June 2024 - self-contradiction

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One thing humans feel sure of: The universe does not contradict itself. A claim may be uncertain, or ambiguous, or misunderstood, or ill-posed, but it cannot be both true and false. It's a deep intuition that philosophers have always agreed on, at least philosophers who accept that reality exists. We're so sure of it that we designed our mathematics so that if a contradiction exists, then everything is a contradiction. But how do we know? We made quantum mechanics self-consistent even though it is deeply counterintuitive. And we know that quantum mechanics is almost right, but not right. Is self-consistency our mistake?

clue:

There is a secret tie-in with the morality discussion of the last few days: Morality is not self-consistent. Moral rules are guidelines that can conflict, at least for everyday moral systems.

give me a clue so sweet and true

the Daily Whale || copyright 2024 Jay J.P. Scott <jay@satirist.org>