X-Message-Number: 23909 Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 22:26:20 -0700 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: Goedel once more Robert Ettinger, #23896: >And once more, for those who insist Goedel's result is significant, I remind >them that a sentence undecidable in one formal system can be made >decidable by >expanding the formal system, which certainly shows that the problem is in the >particular system. In this case, though, expanding the formal system to remove one "problem" does not at all remove another, similar problem in the expanded system. You are forever chasing a chimera if you try to deal with the problem in this way. In other words, *any* formal system you construct along very general lines will have the Goedelian problem. Goedel's result, narrowly restricted to one formal system, may have only limited significance, but one must not overlook its full applicability. Mike Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23909