Edward Nelson's predicativist program in 'Predicative Arithmetic' (1986) disputes that exponential growth is well-defined at all, undermining the comparison premise rather than the conclusion.

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Comparison premise(as what Nelson targets instead of the conclusion): An assumption used in an argument that allows us to compare or evaluate two things—in this case, the starting assumption that makes the argument work.
Edward Nelson(as the author being discussed): An American mathematician and philosopher (1932-2014) who developed predicativism, a philosophical approach to mathematics that questions whether certain mathematical objects and operations are truly well-defined or meaningful.
Exponential growth(as the mathematical concept Nelson questions): A pattern where something increases by multiplying by the same factor repeatedly (like doubling: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16...), growing faster and faster as time goes on.
Predicative Arithmetic(as the title of Nelson's 1986 work): A system of mathematics built on predicativist principles that avoids using infinite or circular definitions, treating only numbers and operations that can be clearly constructed.
predicativism(Philosophy of mathematics; contrasted with classical set theory which accepts the power set of the natural numbers): The position that sets exist only if they are definable in some non-circular linguistic way
well-defined(in mathematics and logic): Clear and precise enough that there's no confusion about what something means or how it works.

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