• lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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    2 months ago

    Not really. The left side comes from trying to evaluate the Reimann zeta function at a point outside its domain, and the right side comes from evaluating the analytic continuation of the zeta function at the same point. The deepest truth it reveals is that applying the definition of a function outside its domain can give you nonsense results.

    It’s one of those ideas like Scrödinger’s cat or pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, where something that was intended to illustrate an absurdity is instead taken as representing some amazing and unintuitive truth.