Fiction "Division by Zero" By Ted Chiang

Question

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

Answer 1

Is there a formal proof the fiction can't come true?

No, by Gödel's second incompleteness theorem, formal systems can prove their own consistency if and only if they are inconsistent. So given that arithmetic is consistent, we'll never be able to prove that it is. (EDIT: Actually not quite true; see Alon's clarification below.)

As an aside, if you liked "Division by Zero," you might also like Greg Egan's pair of stories in which arithmetic isn't consistent: "Luminous" and "Dark Integers".