# Fiction “Division by Zero” By Ted Chiang

Fiction "Division by Zero" By Ted Chiang

I read the fiction story "Division by Zero" By Ted Chiang

My interpretation is the character finds a proof that arithmetic is inconsistent.

Is there a formal proof the fiction can't come true? (I don't suggest the fiction can come true).

EDIT: I see someone tried

-
+1 for interesting question. I'll have to finish reading it first. But I do find a bit to quibble with in the first paragraph: usually $0\times \infty$ is regarded as an indeterminate form, not 0. –  Willie Wong Dec 18 '10 at 14:15
This might be interesting to you... –  Ｊ. Ｍ. Dec 18 '10 at 14:17
Ted Chiang resources: freesfonline.de/authors/Ted_Chiang.html –  jerr18 Dec 18 '10 at 14:33
As with all stories, it's about people, emotions etc. Any math it borrows is just a prop, and doesn't have to be correct. As with many stories, there is a kind of superficial profoundness. You may as well ask if there's a proof that Gandalf can't come back from the dead as Gandalf the Green, Gandalf the Tartan etc - there is no formal proof of any such thing, but it's still not going to happen in reality. –  Steve314 Dec 18 '10 at 16:46
Possibly worth saying, though - there are some people who claim it's possible to taking a ratio of the largest useful number to the smallest useful number based on physics and astronomy, and give infinity a finite value. Do this and arithmetic is trivially proven to be self-contradictary. –  Steve314 Dec 18 '10 at 17:01