--- Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com> wrote:
> Because the methodology (calculus) for
> conceptualizing the infinite is
> used to design, run, and theorize most of the
> industrial and
> post-industrial world.
If you're referring to integral calculus, it doesn't provide much information about infinities that I can think of. It uses a lot of infinite series in proofs, but the output is more prosaic, esp. with regards to engineering and science.
There is a tendancy in discussions like this to confuse mathematics with natural science, and ascribe qualities of the former to the latter. Physics seems to be the favorite for consideration, but where are the infinities in chemistry, biology, psychology, etc.?
Physics is scarcely different. Earlier somebody cited the Big Bang theory as an attempt to conceptualize infinity, or some such. That's precisely what it ain't -- it sets a finite start point to the universe!
That's not to say physics doesn't deal with infinities
where necessary, but that's not the goal.
Andy
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