In which I attempt to answer the question "What even is a number?" for a friend. https://notebook.drmaciver.com/posts/2019-02-18-08:58.html …
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Replying to @DRMacIver
Nice! The original is this by
@ESYudkowsky I think. I too have written a variant (not yet posted).https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/X3HpE8tMXz4m4w6Rz/the-simple-truth …1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @Meaningness @ESYudkowsky
Yeah,
@mcallisterjp also just suggested this. I don't think it is the original, but could easily be wrong (it's definitely not where I got it from, as I haven't encountered this piece before, but there could just be intervening steps that I just didn't see).1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Oh! I’d be very interested to know the original if anyone can find it, then! Would like my version to point there.
@ESYudkowsky, do you know?2 replies 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @Meaningness @DRMacIver and
I found this in a book from 1990. Probably not the original source either, but it predates Yudkowsky's version: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jklsb5JUgoQC&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=counting+with+stones+sheep&source=bl&ots=wV_G2PuvZH&sig=ACfU3U1M8XsZHSn_ANdpk_z17vxwrI0BYg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-1aqf3MXgAhU3QxUIHQKvBgE4ChDoATABegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=counting%20with%20stones%20sheep&f=false …pic.twitter.com/UD90y88BKg
2 replies 0 retweets 10 likes -
Replying to @drossbucket @DRMacIver and
Awesome detective work! Thank you!
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @Meaningness @drossbucket and
I do believe that I independently came up with exactly the same analogy to serve exactly the same purpose! A fascinating example of identical solutions to identical problems.
2 replies 0 retweets 4 likes -
Replying to @ESYudkowsky @Meaningness and
Someone sent me an email saying that something very similar (though less fleshed out) occurs in Kleene's 1952 book "Introduction to Metamathematics", so I think it's probably been independently reinvented a few times at this point!
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
Here we go! https://archive.org/stream/BubliothecaMathematicaStephenColeKleeneIntroductionToMetamathematicsWoltersNoordhoffPublishing1971/%28Bubliotheca%20Mathematica%29%20Stephen%20Cole%20Kleene-Introduction%20to%20Metamathematics-Wolters-Noordhoff%20Publishing%20%281971%29_djvu.txt …pic.twitter.com/fafenmPa1e
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