Re: Poetential infinity


"Bill Taylor" <w.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1138078424.348829.99120@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> There was once a lot of debate, and still occasionally is,
> about the difference between "actual infinity" and "potential
> infinity".
>
> It always struck me that, whatever you thought about them,
> at least the defintion of actual inf was reasonably clear,
> but that the same couldn't really be said of potential inf.
>
> So, it occurred to me that a better name for "potential infinity"
> would be "unboundedly finite".
>
> Would this cover the case, do y'all think?
>

The common term in use is "finitely unbounded".
This comes up in describing the length of the TM Turing tape
and is preferred to describing the TM Turing tape as "infinite".
Finitely unbounded is used in some theories to describe the
universe, since infinite doesn't normally imply increasing size.
Does your term have an advantage to "finitely unbounded"?

Regards,
Stephen


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Poetential infinity
    ... > There was once a lot of debate, and still occasionally is, ... > It always struck me that, whatever you thought about them, ... > but that the same couldn't really be said of potential inf. ... it occurred to me that a better name for "potential infinity" ...
    (sci.logic)
  • Poetential infinity
    ... There was once a lot of debate, and still occasionally is, ... about the difference between "actual infinity" and "potential ... It always struck me that, whatever you thought about them, ... but that the same couldn't really be said of potential inf. ...
    (sci.logic)
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