我们不得不相信的那些不可能之事
为了保持理智，我们不得不接受一个现实：气候正在彻底失控，但同时又告诉自己，大部分时候可以忽略这一点——因为拯救自己似乎并不"划算"。这种荒诞的认知失调，正是我们每天都在经历的思维困境。
相关报道
The article explores how modern society requires individuals to trust complex systems and expert knowledge that are impossible for any single person to fully verify, drawing on examples from technology, law, and science to argue that belief in such "impossible things" is a necessary foundation of civilization.
The article argues that science, despite its claim to objectivity, remains fundamentally a process of persuasion, where researchers must convince peers through rhetoric, evidence presentation, and social dynamics, challenging the idealized view of pure empirical discovery.
Infinitary logic allows infinitely long formulas and proofs, enabling properties not expressible in first-order logic. Key variants like L(ω1,ω) permit countable conjunctions and disjunctions with finite quantifier strings. These logics are studied in model theory and set theory.
The article examines how certain fundamental assumptions in physics—like locality, realism, and continuity—are mathematically impossible to maintain simultaneously, highlighting the counterintuitive nature of quantum mechanics and the necessity of dropping at least one cherished assumption to build a consistent theory of reality.
Modern society depends on complex systems—bridges, encryption, elections—that most people cannot personally verify, forcing trust in experts and institutions as an unavoidable necessity.