User talk:Zaklog

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Why would you remove Borg forl artificial intelligence in science fiction? --moxon 07:11, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

I don't mind the list shortened, but I was curious. Wiki definitions took me from Borg to cyborg to cybernetic organism, from where I made the jump to artificial. But this begs the questio: what does 'cybernetic' imply in terms of the Borg? Thanks for coming back. --moxon 16:23, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] irrational numbers

To be sure though, are some (or all) irrational numbers simply artifacts of the decimal system? That is, could a number which is irrational in base 10 be expressed rationally in, for example, base 9 or base 17?

No! This is a surprisingly persistent misunderstanding. No mathematician ever defines the concept of irrational number by saying the decimal expansion neither terminates nor repeats. Nonetheless, students somehow pick up that idea, which is never taught, and it has persisted for decades. I don't know how it happens. But if you read the definitions at rational number and irrational number, you will see that they do not mention base 10 or any other base. The ancient Greeks did not use base 10 or other bases to expand non-integers, and had no concept of decimal point or the like, yet they proved that certain numbers are irrational. The part about non-terminating and non-repeating is merely a consequence. Michael Hardy 21:37, 21 March 2006 (UTC)