Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!corton!inria!seti!nuri!ziane
From: ziane@nuri.inria.fr (ziane mikal @)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: continuous vs discrete
Message-ID: <2101@seti.inria.fr>
Date: 24 Apr 91 18:06:58 GMT
References: <381@sein.enst-bretagne.fr>
Sender: news@seti.inria.fr
Organization: INRIA Rocquencourt,Le Chesnay, France.
Lines: 22


In the article cited above A. Beugnard proposes a demonstration 
 that the world is not continuous based on the famous Zeno's
paradox: "Achilles and the tortoise".

I think the problem is that the description of Achilles's
trajectory is biased. That description obviously only considers
a series of observation points that, by construction, are always
behind the turtle. It does not mean that this description
describes Achilles' trajectory completely, that is precisely
after he has passed the tortoise. The description of Achilles's
trajectory has an infinite number of observation points, but
by no means this implies an infinite time, and thus the complete
trajectory of Achilles !

Whether or not, assuming an infinite number
of observation points before Achilles passes the tortoise
is a proper model of the world, is another question.

Sorry if somebody has already pointed it out.

Mikal Ziane.