FOM: Quiz

[Moshe' Machover]

Quiz about mathematical truth
and social construction/destruction/deconstruction.
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Let P be the proposition that the well-ordering theorem is first-order
provable in (formalized) ZFC.

Q1. Is P absolutely true now/always?

Q2. Assume that on 1 January 2023 a big astroid hits Planet Earth and
obliterates all human life and all human-made material artefacts. Will P be
true on 2 January 2023?

Q3. Assume that on 1 January 2023 a big astroid hits Planet Earth and
obliterates all human life; but one library escapes desruction. In this
library there is a book about ZFC (but there is no-one left to read it).
Will P be true on 2 January 2023?

Q4. Assume that on 1 January 2023 a big astroid approaches Planet Earth; on
that day, absolutely no-one thinks about mathematics because everyone is
terribly worried about the impending catastrophe. But on 2 January 2023 it
transpires that the astroid has missed Planet Earth by 1/10 of a
light-second. Was P true on  1 January 2023, when no-one thought about it?

NOTE: You could play the same game with the proposition that 2 + 3 = 5; but
then someone might ask: `in what axiomatic theory?'

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