[FOM]: Independece without Forcing

[E. Todd Eisworth]

[Eisworth]
What about independence results without forcing?

[Friedman]
(Friedman answers Eisworth's question in spades)

I've spent the morning acquainting myself with Google searches of the FOM
archives and reading abstracts of Harvey's pre-prints. I spent the years
since getting my PhD using forcing to solve problems in topology --- I
almost wish I had spent the time reading FOM! (In my defense, I didn't know
the list existed until earlier this year.)

Let me now try and rephrase my question so that I get to the heart of the
matter:

What should set-theorists be doing with forcing?  Should we be beating the
bushes for opportunities to apply the technology in other areas of
mathematics?  Should we be concentrating on "internal matters"?  Should we
be searching for "theorems about forcing" instead of proving things using
forcing?  Are we simply spinning our wheels developing more and more baroque
techniques for answering technical questions no one cares about, or are we
heading somewhere?


Best,

Todd

PS:  When I asked a couple of young logicians who subscribe to this list if
they ever posted, one told me with a smile on her face "No...Harvey might
reply to it".  I guess I can tell them "Jump on in, you can learn a few
things".