http://www.metafilter.com/tags/divisionbyzero Posts tagged with 'divisionbyzero' at MetaFilter. Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:07:57 -0800 Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:07:57 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/56810/Nullity%2Dand%2DPerspex%2DMachines Dr James Anderson, from the University of Reading's computer science department, claims to have defined what it means to divide by zero. It's so simple, he claims, that he's even <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2006/12/06/divide_zero_feature.shtml">taught it to high school students</a> [via Digg]. You just have to work with a new number he calls <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/features/divide_zero_sum.ram">Nullity</a> (RealPlayer video). According to Anderson's site <a href="http://www.bookofparagon.com/ ">The Book of Paragon</a>, the creation, innovation, or discovery of nullity is a step toward describing a "perspective simplex, or perspex [ . . . ] a simple physical thing that is both a mind and a body." Anderson claims that Nullity permits the definition of <a href="http://www.bookofparagon.com/Mathematics/PerspexMachineVIII.pdf">transreal arithmetic</a> (pdf), a "total arithmetic . . . with no arithmetical exceptions," thus removing what the fictional dialogue <a href="http://www.bookofparagon.com/News/News_00002.htm">No Zombies, Only Feelies?</a> identifies as the "homunculus problem" in mathematics: the need for human intervention to sort out "corner cases" which are not defined. tag:metafilter.com,2006:site.56810 Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:07:57 -0800 artificialintelligence batshitinsane divisionbyzero jamesanderson math mathematics mind nullity philosophy philosophyofmind zero treepour