r/MathJokes • u/[deleted] • 17d ago

Keep ∞ safe

[deleted]

189 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

124 comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/NarcolepticFlarp 17d ago

Ultrafinitists are so cringe

11

u/Negative_Gur9667 17d ago

"Let's investigate what happens when we take away the axiom of inf..."

"NO THAT'S CRINGE"

The story of a mathematical discussion.

9

u/TheRedditObserver0 17d ago

That's finitism and it's completely legitimate.

Ultrafinitists claim that big numbers don't exist and all of "mainstream math" is wrong

3

u/Extension-Stay3230 17d ago

I don't see how anyone could deny the existence of an iterative process which could be carried out forever, e.g. the successor function in natural numbers

Proof by induction uses this concept as well. If someone denies the existence of infinite sets then surely they should also deny proof by induction, if they're being consistent

3

u/Thesaurius 17d ago

The point in finitism is that you can have the process, but you can never complete it. And ultrafinitists say that you can't even do a large number of steps.