They tried to argue that all math was useless bullshit because it couldn’t deal with infinity.
I tried to show different ways math has been useful for me personally, and for humanity generally. None of that mattered to them. I tried to explain how math can actually work with infinity. They insisted I was lying.
A part of me thought they were just trying to troll me, but after seeing and interacting with them multiple times afterwards, I’m pretty sure those were their genuine beliefs. They were also a moon landing denier, but after the whole math discussion I didn’t touch that topic with a ten foot pole.
I now consider it one of many examples of the idea that you can’t use reason and evidence to change someone’s beliefs, if they never used reason or evidence to conclude those beliefs in the first place.
I feel sorry for those who have never felt the excitement of changing their beliefs based on new evidence or understanding, especially when due to their own hubris. Being wrong is an opportunity to learn and discover. Everyone who has ever lived, and will ever live, is sometimes wrong.
In a way, that’s the general theme of this thread. We stood our ground when we knew we were right and could prove it with reason and evidence, while facing opposition that was based on stubbornness, hubris, and refusal to admit to being wrong.
I feel sorry for those who have never felt the excitement of changing their beliefs based on new evidence or understanding, especially when due to their own hubris.
Not only is it sad, nearly everything wrong with the world right now can be boiled down to this character flaw
“Nearly everything” seems a bit hyperbolic, but I absolutely agree that it’s a major problem that has caused, and will likely continue to cause massive unnecessary suffering worldwide.
So many people never even look at calculus & how it addresses infinities, it’s got this reputation as difficult but that’s just because of all the different algorithms and rules to learn for different cases, but you can teach the basic operations and build intuitions of differentiation and integration to grade schoolers.
They tried to argue that all math was useless bullshit because it couldn’t deal with infinity.
I tried to show different ways math has been useful for me personally, and for humanity generally. None of that mattered to them. I tried to explain how math can actually work with infinity. They insisted I was lying.
A part of me thought they were just trying to troll me, but after seeing and interacting with them multiple times afterwards, I’m pretty sure those were their genuine beliefs. They were also a moon landing denier, but after the whole math discussion I didn’t touch that topic with a ten foot pole.
JFC don’t send them stopdoingmath.jpeg
I now consider it one of many examples of the idea that you can’t use reason and evidence to change someone’s beliefs, if they never used reason or evidence to conclude those beliefs in the first place.
I feel sorry for those who have never felt the excitement of changing their beliefs based on new evidence or understanding, especially when due to their own hubris. Being wrong is an opportunity to learn and discover. Everyone who has ever lived, and will ever live, is sometimes wrong.
In a way, that’s the general theme of this thread. We stood our ground when we knew we were right and could prove it with reason and evidence, while facing opposition that was based on stubbornness, hubris, and refusal to admit to being wrong.
Not only is it sad, nearly everything wrong with the world right now can be boiled down to this character flaw
“Nearly everything” seems a bit hyperbolic, but I absolutely agree that it’s a major problem that has caused, and will likely continue to cause massive unnecessary suffering worldwide.
You can’t even prove numbers are real!
Sounds irrational
We should all imagine imaginary numbers together.
Ha! You got me there!
So many people never even look at calculus & how it addresses infinities, it’s got this reputation as difficult but that’s just because of all the different algorithms and rules to learn for different cases, but you can teach the basic operations and build intuitions of differentiation and integration to grade schoolers.
https://youtu.be/tt2DGYOi3hc