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felipec  unbelief  1yr ago (felipec.substack.com)   3200 thread views

2+2 = not what you think

felipec.substack.com

Changing someone's mind is very difficult, that's why I like puzzles most people get wrong: to try to open their mind. Challenging the claim that 2+2 is unequivocally 4 is one of my favorites to get people to reconsider what they think is true with 100% certainty.

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Looks like an exercise in sophistry. Of course with skillful redefinition of what '2' and '+' and '2' and '=' and '4' you can make it mean anything you like. It's not a very interesting thing, just as you could invent your own private language where the word "water" means "sun" and the word "dry" means "yellow" and then claim "water is dry!" and feel very smart about it. There's nothing to reconsider - it's not about something being true or not true, it's about confusing oneself on purpose.

Of course with skillful redefinition of what '2' and '+' and '2' and '=' and '4' you can make it mean anything you like.

I did not invent abstract algebra, it's a important field in mathematics.

I didn't claim you invented abstract algebra (if you did, I'd probably just worship you quietly and wouldn't dare to contradict you) - I claim that ability of symbols to attach to any meaning and the fact that same symbols can be used to designate multiple entities with different qualities and properties is not some kind of deep revelation that leads people to profound insights (at least not by now - maybe when this fact has been first discovered, it would). It's more like a rhetorical gotcha trick that is meant to confuse people and give the trickster a false aura of profundity - "oh, he knows that 2+2 can mean so many different things, he must be so smart!", or even "aha! He said "I like giving gifts to children", but in German "gift" means poison, so he is actually is a child murderer and I won the internet by this clever trick!". It's not really that clever, that's what I am saying.

It's not really that clever, that's what I am saying.

Who says it has to be clever?

I think it's time to move on to a horse that has not shuffled its mortal coil and did not join the choir invisible. This is an ex-horse.

This is a smoke screen. You still haven't answered the question.

The most important ideas in civilization are not "clever". So what?

Idea stated in this post is not interesting nor important.

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