Mathematicians who call themselves ultrafinitists think that extremely large numbers are holding back science, from logic to cosmology, and they have a radical plan to do something about it
Computational complexity is exactly where the ultrafinitist argument gets interesting - in theory we can compute anything finitely, but in practice some calculations would require more atoms than exist in the observable univrse to complete, making them effectively “infinite” from a practical standpoint.
Computational complexity is exactly where the ultrafinitist argument gets interesting - in theory we can compute anything finitely, but in practice some calculations would require more atoms than exist in the observable univrse to complete, making them effectively “infinite” from a practical standpoint.