Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro
While prime numbers may appear to be an ad hoc invention with no physical significance, a property of prime numbers is that they form an infinite set as proven by the ancient Greeks. The question is are they an infinite set in all other Universes? If the answer is yes and the concept is applied to maths in general then one can argue that the maths is discovered. A Universe where prime numbers do not exist may simply reflect it hasn't been discovered yet 
Steven |
Wether other universes exist or not is one issue (to be proven or disproven in due time).
However, prime numbers exists as a mathematical, logical etc entity, with their properties, but not as physical entity (yes we can count individual physical pieces, but that is all)
And I bet it will be shown one day that they exist (in full, with all properties mentioned above) in any other universe, (even if other universes do not exist.. I know this sounds contradictory, but I am trying to make a point, perhaps too desperately... because I feel that you guys and some others are jumping into conclusions using logic which is not used properly despite it seems OK at the first glance)
Simply because (in this, and many other cases) this is mathematical concept. And it can exist as such even in the mind of a machine. Perhaps even in Matrix
