, "The book of numbers" http://www.futuretg.com/FTHumanEvolutionCourse/FTFreeLearningKits/01-MA-Mathematics,%20Economics%20and%20Preparation%20for%20University/006-MA16-UN04-05-Mathematics%20Applied%20to%20Physics,%20Chemistry,%20Biology,%20Computer%20Science%20and%20Medicine/011-MA11-UN03-10-Number%20Theory%20and%20Cryptography/Additional%20Resources/J.H.%20Conway,%20R.K.%20Guy%20-%20The%20Book%20of%20Numbers.pdf

, "An Introduction to Surreal Numbers" http://www.whitman.edu/mathematics/SeniorProjectArchive/2012/Grimm.pdf

, "Surreal Numbers, Conway" https://ia600500.us.archive.org/26/items/SurrealNumbers/Knuth-SurrealNumbers_text.pdf

Stopped reading "Grimm.pdf" when it said in axiom 2 that no member of xl can be greater than or equal to xr (not >=)....it then goes to define day one as [0,0] and says 0 <= to 0...

... (less than or equal to) is not the opposite of (not greater than or equal to)...

So...yeah, they blew a pretty basic concept from the starting number.

Plus, I'm not certain what the purpose of any of this is...and didn't care to read any farther to find out. What's the point?

A whole new, comprehensive, representation of numbers, those things we use all the time lol: I have a big hunch that it'll end up changing many theories, hence tech. ...

"What's the point?"

This

I know that the current explanations may seem redundant and tedious... But we have seen similar responses to many new ideas (binary systems, personal computers, et al.). "... the surreal numbers are the largest possible ordered field ... " - Wikipedia, just that hints at something quite interesting, no?

"We still do not know on thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us." ~ Einstein

This isn't really new...

If you're interested in number theory, it's cool to read about, but I'm not sure how applicable it is.

It's recent, and most here never heard about such things maybe... The binary system gave us computers, right? ... I'm guessing that in quantum computing it would make perfect sense - it's based on a binary lol relation, and that relation includes an unknowable factor in between; just change the relation types of surreals, and we might just get something... Dunno, just getting into it, and putting it out there to see what might stir from this oft overlooked concept...

Well binary is different. That's just a different base. This is a different set (field, techincially, I guess). Sure there could be cool things to come of this, but it's unclear if it will change the world. At the moment, it's a bit too abstract for me to comment on.

There we go 8)
"The only real valuable thing is intuition." ~ Einstein

BTW, the creator of said system developed it during his study of Go endgames...

Care to explain why I found an error in the first page of the paper I started to read....

You mean this line? "We also note that 0 ≤ 0, since no element of the empty set is greater than or equal to 0, and 0 is not greater than or equal to any element of the empty set."

Krellin, sing me a song

I read about 2 lines and couldn't go on. Can somebody explain in English why anybody would care about this?

@YJ - NO.

But...for taht rectal itch...yes, it is sex if you are easing the discomfort of your favorite sheep. And yes, your banjo is still out of tune...

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<Much better topic of discussion for this thread...and let's see 'em ban surreal numbers! Mwaaaa ha ha ha ha!> And even if they do...nobody, and I mean *nobody* will miss it...>

lol krelly

Oh ye of puny faith... lol

'I read about 2 lines and couldn't go on. Can somebody explain in English why anybody would care about this?'

Maths is an interesting mental construct to explore. Sometimes it revolutionizes the world.

Seeing why this is applicable to anything in the world right now might require a lot more explaining and doiny so might change the world, but appreciating maths as having intrinsic value and beauty does not.

Soo.. you're saying you don't understand either?

I laughed so much I even considered giving YJ a +1

I'm not dismissing the math, fyi, I just generally have a hard time following a page that wordy. I truly would like somebody to explain to me why this is potentially important.

Did i not do just that?

I mean, not actually important, just potentially.

Aside from the intrinsic beauty of it

I repeat, maybe in Quantum computing, or in other possible upcoming theory and tech. AND this is why I'm asking here also ;)

I don't understand how this is relevant to quantum computing...

@YJ

I think the best answer you're going to get is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surreal_number#Application_to_combinatorial_game_theory

So basically Chess isultimately as complicated as tic-tac-toe, just with more permutations?

anyone have
a hint of imagination
at all anymore?

What do you want from us? You show us an obscure field of math and then try to link it to all these fields that are completely unrelated. Surreal numbers seem cool, if you're in to that sort of thing. Like most math, I'm sure it will have some sort of application, but there's no reason to believe it's going to change the world.

Surreal numbers are not new at all dharmaton, and if people has not heared about them it's just cos they are not so much interested in mathematics.

Surreal numbers are studied in set theory cos they contain not only reals and hiperreals, but also ordinals, so they can be useful as models to test axioms regarding the infinite.

Or something like that.

It's a nice subject, nicely intrduced by Cohen, but it's just maths and not especially more interesting than eny other branch of maths.

principans +1

@Dharm

I am curious why you think this could apply to quantum computers. Is there a reason you think that?

ok - true enough - Abg: the duality representation