arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Don Perlis.
Reasoning does not work well when done in isolation from its significance, both to the needs and interests of an agent and with respect to the wider world. Moreover, those issues may best be handled with a new sort of data structure that goes beyond the knowledge base and incorporates aspects of perceptual knowledge and even more, in which a kind of anticipatory action may be key.
The concept of infinity took centuries to achieve recognized status in the field of mathematics, despite the fact that it was implicitly present in nearly all mathematical endeavors. Here I explore the idea that a similar development might be warranted in physics. Several threads will be speculatively examined, including some involving nonstandard analysis. While there are intriguing possibilities, there also are noteworthy difficulties.