Random thoughts

[pinback]

You have a cat with four kittens.

Has this been observed, or are you just making shit up? When I carry four boxes out of the POD into the house, I don't go back for another one, not because I did MATH, but because I saw and remembered there weren't any left.

I think you're just making shit up.

[Casual Observer]

So I was thinking about negative numbers... Another example is an empty parking garage, which would be a bunch of negative cars, right?... So now, let's say I have a 12oz can of Quint beer (wink) and I pour that beer into my glass of negative beer...it now equals zero beer, right? But it doesn't. It's still positive beer. Where do the negative beers go? Were they ever there to begin with?

I will answer your question, or give you the understanding of why the answer is what it is, but first, the background.

Negative numbers can appear only in mathematics, and not in the real world or in physical reality because they are strictly a theoretical concept. Mathematics has no existence in the real word, and no content (mathematics can only be verified by other mathematics). Mathematics is theoretical, because none of its concepts exist in reality; they only exist in the minds of human beings.

Mathematics has no relation to reality. Full stop. Mathematics in certain forms can be very useful to describe some aspects of reality, e.g. Pi * the distance from the center of a circle to the edge will tell you, in whatever measurement system you used (feet and inches, or centimeters and meters, etc.) the area occupied by a circle, mathematics itself is not part of reality.

While mathematics provide useful results in the real world, it only does so because people interpret the results. Even though the rules of math may provide only one possible valid conclusion to a particular mathematical expression, e.g., 2+2= can never have any valid answer except '4', this is just a convention, or a rule people have chosen.

Let's try this. Go out into the world and find me a 4. Not the printed symbol, not four items, not a 3D image of the number, but an actual 4 in reality, You cannot, because there in no such thing as a 4 in the world. Mathematics is all abstract, it has no physical representation in reality.

Let's try the following. You have a cat with four kittens. You need to move them, so if you can only carry one at a time (they are very[/i\ feisty) how many trips would you make? Four. Now, if a cat needed to move the same kittens, how many trips would it make? Five. Cats can't count, so the only things it understands is 'kitten present' or 'kitten not present'. So it starts with the first one, repeats three times, then picks up the last one. The cat has no idea of the concept of the 'zero' and does not realize that in taking the last kitten, there are now no more kittens; it can't think that abstractly. So, having retrieved the last kitten, it goes back and discovers no kittens present.

Yes, mathematics provide useful tools to assist us in interacting with reality, but as an abstract discipline, it has no existence in reality.

So now, having explained this, the answer to your question is: there are no negative beers. In the real world we have only 'exists' and 'does not exist.' Negative numbers are a part of mathematics, which includes them, which makes them an abstract concept.

What about antimatter?

[AArdvark]

Well, there's a good point. Is a negative beer the same as an antimatter beer? Or an antimatter cat? I don't know enough advanced math to postulate the equation for antimatter cats, but I'm sure it can be done.

THE
THEORY EXISTS
AARDVARK

[AArdvark]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62096272

[Tdarcos]

You have a cat with four kittens.

When I carry four boxes out of the POD into the house, I don't go back for another one, not because I did MATH, but because I saw and remembered there weren't any left.

And it's obvious you nevee even read what I said, Let's recap, shall we?

Cats can't count, so the only things it understands is 'kitten present' or 'kitten not present'... The cat has no idea of the concept of the 'zero' and does not realize that in taking the last kitten, there are now no more kittens; it can't think that abstractly.

You have the capacity to understand the abstract concept of zero, (one minus 1) which the cat cannot. All the cat understands is something is there, or something is not there; the cat does not understand that once she picks up the last kitten, there are no more kittens left.

[pinback]

Answer my question, please. (He will not.)

[Tdarcos]

So, you're saying that I can't have tea AND no tea at the same time?

Only in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Gakaxy video game.

About the cats.....if I have a cat I have to have a litter box, right? So now, let's say the cat runs away. I still have a litter box but I do not have a negative cat?`

You may be being pedantic, but I'll go along. If you have one cat, and it leaves, you now have zero cats. It is impossible for anything in physical reality to have a negative quantity. (We can have negative balances in checking accounts, because that's just arithmetic, which is abstract.)

Doesn't the [litter] box imply the presence of a cat,

Yes, it does. Typically people do not have litter boxes sans cat.

and by not having a cat to use the box means a negative cat.

No, obviously one cat, minus one cat, equals zero cats. You can't subtract an amount from itself and get less than zero.

Didn't Schrodinger prove this experiment a while ago?

Nope. What he postulated (did a thought experiment) was that if you have a cat and put it in a box where it has a 50/50 chance of being killed, the cat is in a state of uncertainty. We do not know if the cat is alive or dead. (Of course, you can always open the box and look, but philosophers hate it when you make them comport with reality.)

[Flack]

Negative numbers can appear only in mathematics, and not in the real world or in physical reality

/runs to check student loan balance.

Well, fudge.

[pinback]

Answer my question, please. (He will not.)

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

All the cat understands is something is there, or something is not there; the cat does not understand that once she picks up the last kitten, there are no more kittens left.

So every time a mother cat goes to pick up and move her kittens, she makes one last trip? As there being zero kittens there is a complete surprise?

What?

What are -- I don't know what you're saying. Obviously all animals have a concept of zero. "I have zero food in my stomach."

What???

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Damn! Truly awful. Only lead they have is a sticker at the pump with some dude on it saying, "I did that."

[Flack]

"Hey, buddy. It says to turn off your engine and no smoking while fueling your car."
"Or what?"

[AArdvark]

I got to thinking about phone numbers the other day. Using the ten digit number system is old stuff these days. Now we all have a list of people's faces and contacts. It's like we all used to telephone in assembly language and now we're a level above that. The ten digits are still there but we don't need to see them anymore. So what's the next level above that?

[pinback]

Answer my question, please. (He will not.)

[AArdvark]

https://www.amazon.com/GINDOOR-Bathing- ... ljaz10cnVl

Someone must die now

[AArdvark]

Did you ever try to explain to your kids the point of TV Guide?

[Tdarcos]

Negative numbers can appear only in mathematics, and not in the real world or in physical reality

/runs to check student loan balance.

Well, fudge.

Uh, try that again. The recording of a debt (a negative number) is simply bookkeeping. The number is not the debt, it is an abstraction. If I am wrong on this, if the debit is a real and tangible thing, please tell me exactly what physical location is your student loan balance (the documents that declare the debt are not the debt, they are just ink on paper), what place do they store the actual, physical, negative number, what does it weigh, what size is it, what flavor if tasted, what color, and what is its smell? Again, a loan balance or negative number has no physical existence other than as changes in state of the magnetic or semiconductor storage, It cannot be directly perceived other than as an abstract concept (like traffic laws,
or ownership of property.

The abstractions have no meaning or value until converted into a physical entity. And since negative items cannot exist in reality (they exist only in our consciousness, and as information as recorded in various places). Remember, the abstraction is not the object; you do not live at a place with a street address, you live in a building with a physical location on a piece of land. Your address is not your house.; the address is just an abstraction which we use as it makes it easier to find. But even the address is not necessarily where your property is; it's where the land records say, to a specific distance from a fixed point, having a specified size.

These are still abstractions; we find them useful, which is why we use them. But the abstraction is not the thing. Bookkeeping is an abstraction because the numbers are manipulated by rules that people created. But the bookkeeping of an object is not thje object. Your house and property are not the information contained in your deed and the county records, they simply describe a thing, or more particularly, its location,

[AArdvark]

So...this is not here is a real thing? Wow, John Lennon was way ahead of us

[AArdvark]

The Baltimore Gunhead told me today about the four AI robots in Japan that killed a bunch of scientists and they had to 'liter-ly tear them off of the guys'. He also said that the last one was trying to get on the internet so it could look up how to make itself better.

The fuck....

[AArdvark]

Sigh....a quick Google search reveals that the Maryland Gunhead is an idiot with way too many American flags on his pickup truck