The lattice of sets of natural numbers is rich

(jdh.hamkins.org)

53 points | by benmandrew 2 days ago

3 comments

  • munchler 57 minutes ago
    What a beautiful illustration. It makes intuitive the very abstract concepts discussed in the text. It’s fun to zoom in and browse around the structure.
    • michael0church 52 minutes ago
      It’s also genuinely surprising. We’re used to thinking of the countable as the small infinity, which it is, and yet a structure we feel like we can visualize contains so much complexity.

      There is also, weirdly, a way in which massive finite numbers like TREE(3) “feel” larger than N, and large countable infinities “feel” larger than w_1, even though the opposite is clearly true.

      • zaebal 37 minutes ago
        TREE(3) is unimaginably small, compared to ω
      • voidmain 49 minutes ago
        The visualization is of the power set, which is uncountable.
        • michael0church 44 minutes ago
          Right. But because it’s the smallest structure of its type (speaking loosely) it feels like something we should have a grasp on, even though it contains more complexity than we could ever describe or compute with (since both of those are countable.)
  • gregw2 47 minutes ago
    What a great visualization!

    Now can your favorite LLM make me a similar one for the Real #s?

    • stavros 45 minutes ago
      Why can't yours?
  • flobosg 1 hour ago
    (2021)