alt Hacker NewsRejecting infinity is a purely philosophical stance that doesn’t teach us anything about reality.
There is a big difference between “infinity doesn’t exist” and “infinity doesn’t exist physically”.
I should also add that the resolution of zeno’s paradox in the form of calculus where and infinite set of steps can occur in a finite time (or infinite set of distance can span a finite total distance) is conceptually very simple and useful. Rejecting it as unphysical, or saying it must imply time or space come in discrete chunks, is not contributing to an understanding of reality unless the rejection also comes with a set of testable (in principle) predictions.
> There is a big difference between “infinity doesn’t exist” and “infinity doesn’t exist physically”.
Is there? I think one could make a decent case for "nothing exists which doesn't exist physically[1]".
[1] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/
EDIT: you could even probably claim "nothing exists which isn't physically measureable" which may or may not be a stronger claim depending on your point of view.
EDIT AGAIN: rate limited by this dogshit website :D but I'll respond to this comment here:
> Which is exactly why I mentioned rejection of zero, negative numbers, etc. You can reject them, but doing so just throws away useful tools without gaining anything in return.
Yeah! I fully agree. I can see no obvious benefit to rejecting these powerful tools. However, important discoveries often happen in non-obvious directions, and exploring unexplored territory is generally worthwhile. So the fact that it doesn't seem immediately useful doesn't mean it's not worth trying!