A note of appreciation to the 4 of you who started laughing on the first panel.
COMIC ◆ https://t.co/hTDIRSnasB
PATREON ◆ https://t.co/DYYMqy2KN8
STORE ◆ https://t.co/aRRj5Lx651
I can easily (with my strong myopia lol) read down to group 2 element 1 and its fairly high contrast, which is ~250 or so microns
theoretical limit here is ~400nm with good optics and no-optics limit is ~30um or so
there is a pretty (in?)famous story here from harvey friedman on ultrafinitism
friedman goes up to esenin-volpin, a hardline ultrafinitist, after one of his lectures and then posits to him that if the number 2^100 doesn't exist, then surely he believes that somewhere on the line from 2^1, 2^2, ..., 2^100 the numbers stop being real
esenin-volpin asks him to be more specific and so friedman begins:
does 2 exist?
"yes"
does 4 exist?
(waits a second) "yes"
does 8 exist
(waits even longer) "... yes"
friedman doesn't get to 32 by the time that he runs out of patience, but the point was made
@levs57 i was once described by a friend as “a classical mathematician in the streets and a hardline ultrafinitist in the sheets” and i’m not sure i will ever outlive that