| ▲ | o_nate 8 hours ago | |||||||||||||||||||
Whatever largest number you can express in your system, I can represent a larger one in only one bit, using the following specification. 0=your largest number 1=your largest number + 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | Veserv 8 hours ago | parent | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||
To be pedantic, that is a instance of the Berry paradox [1] and no you can not [2] as that would be a violation of Godel's incompleteness theorems. edit: To clarify further, you could create a new formal language L+ that axiomatically defines 0 as "largest number according to L", but that would no longer be L, it would be L+. For any given language with rules at this level of power you could not make that statement without creating a new language with even more powerful rules i.e. each specific set of rules is capped, you need to add more rules to increase that cap, but that is a different language. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry_paradox [2] https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/the-no-self-defeat... | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |||||||||||||||||||
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