[FOM] Feasible and Utterable Numbers

[V.Sazonov@csc.liv.ac.uk]

Quoting Mirco Mannucci <mmannucc at cs.gmu.edu> Sun, 06 Aug 2006:

> After all, most people would agree that 2^100 is a feasible number, 
> even though not many have actually  DONE the
> computation.

NOBODY DID!

What I think we mean in this case is that there is a
> high degree of confidence that such a calculation
> COULD be successfully completed, if  needed.

I presume that we are here in the context of mathematics and natural 
sciences - not the sociology. So I would not rely on any subjective 
opinions. As I remember, in a known book of Richard Feinman he asserted 
that the number of electrons in the universe is less than a number 
which is in fact less than 2^100. I believe that this was not a 
subjective opinion, but a conclusion from physical experiments. Thus, 
this number is definitely non-feasible (in our current world) in the 
sense that no physical computer could calculate its value in the form 
SSSS...0 (a term a bigger size than our World!). But you seemingly have 
some different idea of (contextual?) feasibility which I do not 
understand.

Best wishes,

Vladimir Sazonov



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