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---
title: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12) (HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015888)"
source: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12)"
sourceUrl: "https://www.justice.gov/epstein"
date: "2026-01-01"
category: "House Oversight"
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engine: "engine undisclosed (ep-nov-12.greg.technology mirror)"
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externalUrl: "https://ep-nov-12.greg.technology"
---

The Game of Math
ne of my most vivid childhood memories is driving my mother
through this phase:
Me: "Why is a sponge wet?"
My mother: "Because it has soaked up water."
Me: "Why has it soaked up water?"
My mother: "Because it has small holes in it."
Me: "But what makes water wet?"
My mother: "Because it is made of wet stuff"" a bit weak now.
Me: "What is wet stuff?"
You can ramble on indefinitely unpeeling a never-ending onion.
Sometimes, if you are unlucky, you may get stuck in a loop. For example,
"where did the chicken come from?" "An egg, "and where did the egg
come from?"...
Mathematics breaks this cycle!
In mathematics, there is no danger of an infinite number of 'why'
questions because at its core are a clearly defined set of absolute rules
called
axioms. You cannot ask the 'why' question of an axiom. It is a
RULE!
Starting from
an absolute minimum of fundamental rules
everything else is built up so that no step requires any leap of faith nor
generates any contradiction. Let me give you a concrete example and, in
the process, show you how numbers are defined.
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015888