[FOM] Platonism and Formalism

[Torkel Franzen]

Vladimir Sazonov says:

 >It is Platonism, "the unique" absolute standard model of PA independent 
 >on anything  - what is mysticism and meditation.

 In everyday life, and in ordinary reasoning, we take many things for
granted. It is open to you, or to anybody, to question what we take
for granted, but such questioning will be of little interest (to most
people) as long as it does not provide any workable and
fruitful alternatives. In the present case, a metaphysically sensitive
person will reject the idea that "the number"

      25195908475657893494027183240048398571429282126204
      03202777713783604366202070759555626401852588078440
      69182906412495150821892985591491761845028084891200
      72844992687392807287776735971418347270261896375014
      97182469116507761337985909570009733045974880842840
      17974291006424586918171951187461215151726546322822
      16869987549182422433637259085141865462043576798423
      38718477444792073993423658482382428119816381501067
      48104516603773060562016196762561338441436038339044
      14952634432190114657544454178424020924616515723350
      77870774981712577246796292638635637328991215483143
      81678998850404453640235273819513786365643912120103
      97122822120720357

(which is the RSA $200,000 challenge number) has a determinate
factorization which we don't as yet know, and perhaps will never
know. Such metaphysical sensitivity is fine, but it will not have any
impact on people's thinking unless it can be used in some illuminating
alternative explanation of the relation or correlation between theory
and practice in computation. Ethereal metaphysical misgivings about
the "mysticism" involved in ordinary thinking about numbers are in
themselves just unworldly complaints divorced from practical
intellectual concerns. Since you mention absolute time, let us note
that Einstein spent no time or effort arguing about the mystical
character of the idea of absolute time.

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Torkel Franzen