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Many of the books I would have been covered already but one that hasn't (ie not found via option-f) is: "Is God a Mathematician?" by Mario Livio It is a wonde

by agentgt 10y ago

Many of the books I would have been covered already but one that hasn't (ie not found via option-f) is: "Is God a Mathematician?" by Mario Livio It is a wonderful exploration and history of math, science and light theology (mostly historic though. the book is written by a mathematician). I still wonder frequently if math is human made up thing or is it innate. Is the universe inherently mathematical? Can we prove it?

vinchuco 10y ago
Define inherently mathematical.
- agentgt 10y ago
  I'm probably not doing the justice of describing the book particularly since I am especially weak at writing. Before I go on and waste everyones time with me falsely explaining things I recommend you just read up on the book (ie just read some summaries). What I mean by "inherently mathematical" is that everything is based on math. That all thing in the universe are mathematical and everything can be represented with formulas and constants. That math makes the universe work and not the other way around. It may seem obvious to some that of course the universe is mathematical but many believe that it is a human's way of modeling patterns that just so happen to happen in our universe. Like I said I sort of want to avoid prolong discussion of this topic as it could be its own HN thread and I also know I'm doing a great injustice to the book and people actually working in this area of attempting to try to explain it. Here is SA article on the subject (SA is hardly academic but it might be better than my explanation): http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-universe-made-of-math-excerpt/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-universe-ma...
  - vinchuco 10y ago
    I'll take a look at both! I did not expect a definitive answer to a hard question (I myself wish I had a good one). The "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" is a really interesting topic. A spider may wonder if the universe is inherently spiderthought-like. Spiderwebs work great, after all.

by agentgt 10y ago

vinchuco 10y ago

Define inherently mathematical.

agentgt 10y ago
I'm probably not doing the justice of describing the book particularly since I am especially weak at writing. Before I go on and waste everyones time with me falsely explaining things I recommend you just read up on the book (ie just read some summaries). What I mean by "inherently mathematical" is that everything is based on math. That all thing in the universe are mathematical and everything can be represented with formulas and constants. That math makes the universe work and not the other way around. It may seem obvious to some that of course the universe is mathematical but many believe that it is a human's way of modeling patterns that just so happen to happen in our universe. Like I said I sort of want to avoid prolong discussion of this topic as it could be its own HN thread and I also know I'm doing a great injustice to the book and people actually working in this area of attempting to try to explain it. Here is SA article on the subject (SA is hardly academic but it might be better than my explanation): http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-universe-made-of-math-excerpt/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-universe-ma...
- vinchuco 10y ago
  I'll take a look at both! I did not expect a definitive answer to a hard question (I myself wish I had a good one). The "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" is a really interesting topic. A spider may wonder if the universe is inherently spiderthought-like. Spiderwebs work great, after all.