this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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Eh, no. Mathematics is an hallucination of ours we are trying to desperately map onto reality. I say this as a mathematician. When you look out into our reality, you know what we see? A curved universe. There is nothing in our reality that is truely STRAIGHT.
YET, we creatures came up with such an natural thing as a straight line. Straight lines are a uniquely human hallucination. Its the logic we use to make sense of the world, but its a Rorschach test of our own making. You are attaching meaning to it because thats what our brains do. generate meaning out of chaos.
I need to look no further than pi, which is a number that represents our feeble attempts to push the round universe into our square heads. Its trying to represent the curved universe as a straight line (and visavers) - and reality said : LOL, NOPE!! YOU get a number that is more illusive than the irrationals. A never ending non patterned number.
All of nature is not based on mathematics. Mathematics is the language we use to describe nature. Thats like saying the Grand Canyon is BASED on book describing the Grand Canyon.
1.) No its not. Its our language, not nature's.
2.) To a degree, yes. But thats because our brains are pattern seeking and pattern generating machines - not because nature follows a system WE made up.
3.) Did I mention Pi yet
Here
https://i.imgur.com/a5ueCi5.jpg
THIS is a graph of a discovery that I made in number theory. Does it look like it has a pattern to you? I think this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, because IT MAKES NO SENSE. which means, we still have a lot to discover and learn
draws a straight line
"Fuck you, God"
"Eh, no". There are tons of actual patterns in mathematics, we didn't invent the "laws of physics" we just slapped a framework on top for better understanding. Math isn't a human invention, it's our interpretation of how things work, and at the base of it all there are laws that govern "how things work" (even if we haven't fully discovered all of them), it isn't just randomness that we're trying to apply patterns to.
Using your example of pi, calling it "chaos" is disingenuous, because it's a single constant that has a massive number of applications. That's not random or chaotic at all.
Hey Quazar,
Great point and post. Any math + philosophy reddits you know of on Lemme?
Gimme dem philosophy subs!
Its going to be hard changing our vernacular
and no. If you know of any, lemme know
Yeah… I thought about it… and couldn’t be bothered to figure it out. Keep me posted though Quazar - maybe we can get one started.
Such a fascinating read, definitely changed my perception about mathematics and the world, I'm probably going to remember your view about the world time by time in the future. What makes your comment all the more interesting is that what I wrote was a quote from the movie "pi" which is about a mathematician. You've probably watched it but if you haven't I really think you should check it out.
This could be a new modifiable copypasta
Such a fascinating read, definitely changed my perception about copypastas and the Fediverse. I'm probably going to remember your view about copypastas time by time in the future. What makes your comment all the more interesting is that what I wrote was a comment from the post which is about a maths. You've probably seen it but if you haven't I really think you should check it out.
Perfect, thank you