Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter Page B
Authors: Douglas R. Hofstadter
Tags: General, science, Biography & Autobiography, music, Computers, Artificial intelligence, Genres & Styles, Philosophy, Art, Science & Technology, Mathematics, Individual Artists, Classical, Logic, Symmetry, Bach; Johann Sebastian, Metamathematics, Intelligence (AI) & Semantics, G'odel; Kurt, Escher; M. C
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theorem come out true, and every nontheorem come out false. But this is something which we could only check directly in a finite number of cases. The set of theorems is most likely infinite. How will we know that all theorems express truths under this interpretation, unless we know everything there is to know about both the formal system and the corresponding domain of interpretation?
It is in somewhat this odd position that we will find ourselves when we attempt to match the reality of natural numbers (i.e., the nonnegative integers: 0, 1, 2, ...) with the typographical symbols of a formal system. We will try to understand the relationship between what we call "truth" in number theory and what we can get at by symbol manipulation.
So let us briefly look at the basis for calling some statements of number theory true, and others false. How much is 12 times 12? Everyone knows it is 144. But how many of the people who give that answer have actually at
any time in their lives drawn a 12 by 12 rectangle, and then counted the little squares in it? Most people would regard the drawing and counting unnecessary. They would instead offer as proof a few marks on paper, such as are shown below:
12
X 12
------
24
12
------
144
And that would be the "proof". Nearly everyone believes that if you counted the squares, you would get 144 of them; few people feel that outcome is in doubt.
The conflict between the two points of view comes into sharper focus when you consider the problem of determining the value 987654321 x 123456789. First of all, it is virtually impossible to construct the appropriate rectangle; and what is worse, even if it were constructed and huge armies of people spent centuries counting the little squares, o a very gullible person would be willing to believe their final answer. It is just too likely that somewhere, somehow, somebody bobbled just a little bit. So is it ever possible to know what the answer is? If you trust the symbolic process which involves manipulating digits according to certain simple rules, yes. That process is presented to children as a device which gets right answer; lost in the shuffle, for many children, are the rhyme reason of that process. The digit-shunting laws for multiplication are based mostly on a few properties of addition and multiplication which are assumed to hold for all numbers.
The Basic Laws of Arithmetic
The kind of assumption I mean is illustrated below. Suppose that you down a few sticks:
/ // // // / /
Now you count them. At the same time, somebody else counts them, starting from the other end. Is it clear that the two of you will get the s: answer? The result of a counting process is independent of the way in which it is done. This is really an assumption about what counting i would be senseless to try to prove it, because it is so basic; either you s or you don't-but in the latter case, a proof won't help you a bit.
From this kind of assumption, one can get to the commutativity and associativity of addition (i.e., first that b + c = c + b always, and second that b + (c + d) = (b + c) + d always). The same assumption can also you to the commutativity and associativity of multiplication; just think of
many cubes assembled to form a large rectangular solid. Multiplicative commutativity and associativity are just the assumptions that when you rotate the solid in various ways, the number of cubes will not change. Now these assumptions are not verifiable in all possible cases, because the number of such cases is infinite. We take them for granted; we believe them (if we ever think about them) as deeply as we could believe anything.
The amount of money in our pocket will not change as we walk down the street, jostling it up and down; the number of books we have will not change if we pack them up in a box, load them into our car, drive one hundred miles, unload the box, unpack it, and place the books in a new shelf. All of this is part of what we mean by
It is in somewhat this odd position that we will find ourselves when we attempt to match the reality of natural numbers (i.e., the nonnegative integers: 0, 1, 2, ...) with the typographical symbols of a formal system. We will try to understand the relationship between what we call "truth" in number theory and what we can get at by symbol manipulation.
So let us briefly look at the basis for calling some statements of number theory true, and others false. How much is 12 times 12? Everyone knows it is 144. But how many of the people who give that answer have actually at
any time in their lives drawn a 12 by 12 rectangle, and then counted the little squares in it? Most people would regard the drawing and counting unnecessary. They would instead offer as proof a few marks on paper, such as are shown below:
12
X 12
------
24
12
------
144
And that would be the "proof". Nearly everyone believes that if you counted the squares, you would get 144 of them; few people feel that outcome is in doubt.
The conflict between the two points of view comes into sharper focus when you consider the problem of determining the value 987654321 x 123456789. First of all, it is virtually impossible to construct the appropriate rectangle; and what is worse, even if it were constructed and huge armies of people spent centuries counting the little squares, o a very gullible person would be willing to believe their final answer. It is just too likely that somewhere, somehow, somebody bobbled just a little bit. So is it ever possible to know what the answer is? If you trust the symbolic process which involves manipulating digits according to certain simple rules, yes. That process is presented to children as a device which gets right answer; lost in the shuffle, for many children, are the rhyme reason of that process. The digit-shunting laws for multiplication are based mostly on a few properties of addition and multiplication which are assumed to hold for all numbers.
The Basic Laws of Arithmetic
The kind of assumption I mean is illustrated below. Suppose that you down a few sticks:
/ // // // / /
Now you count them. At the same time, somebody else counts them, starting from the other end. Is it clear that the two of you will get the s: answer? The result of a counting process is independent of the way in which it is done. This is really an assumption about what counting i would be senseless to try to prove it, because it is so basic; either you s or you don't-but in the latter case, a proof won't help you a bit.
From this kind of assumption, one can get to the commutativity and associativity of addition (i.e., first that b + c = c + b always, and second that b + (c + d) = (b + c) + d always). The same assumption can also you to the commutativity and associativity of multiplication; just think of
many cubes assembled to form a large rectangular solid. Multiplicative commutativity and associativity are just the assumptions that when you rotate the solid in various ways, the number of cubes will not change. Now these assumptions are not verifiable in all possible cases, because the number of such cases is infinite. We take them for granted; we believe them (if we ever think about them) as deeply as we could believe anything.
The amount of money in our pocket will not change as we walk down the street, jostling it up and down; the number of books we have will not change if we pack them up in a box, load them into our car, drive one hundred miles, unload the box, unpack it, and place the books in a new shelf. All of this is part of what we mean by
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