re: #324 Belafon

Philosophically, I would agree with him on the first, in that no mathematical system is based in the real world (Einstein has a good discussion of this about geometry in his book on the Special Theory of Relativity). We don’t have a hypothesis about the number 1 that we test against reality.

The term “belief system” in this context has not meaning, though I know what he’s trying for.

On the other hand, not accepting that i = sqrt( -1 ) is silly. It’s a definition. Does he also have trouble with the concept of irrational numbers? Or that you can add two terms with different exponents (ax^2 + bx, for instance)? I bring these up because they also confused even some mathematicians.

He wants to debate these points with me the next time we meet, but debating abstract shit with an engineer is doomed to failure, in my experience. All I said in reply was, “Yet, it works.”