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> To me, it was pretty clear that math absolutely was 'alien'/foreign to the human brain. It's clearly very useful, but human brains are not inherently capable

by bmitc 4y ago

> To me, it was pretty clear that math absolutely was 'alien'/foreign to the human brain. It's clearly very useful, but human brains are not inherently capable of grasping it. That pretty strongly disagrees with a few experts on the matter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Mathematics_Comes_From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Mathematics_Comes_From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics,_Form_and_Function https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics,_Form_and_Function Also, I'm not sire how Godel's death is relevant.

anthk 4y ago
From your link: "It's difficult for me to conceive of a metaphor for a real number raised to a complex power, but if there is one, I'd sure like to see it." — Joseph Auslander" https://www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/questionCorner/complexexp.html https://www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/questionCorner/complexe...
simonh 4y ago
We do grasp mathematics, some of us anyway, so clearly that’s false but I doubt it was meant literally. The linked articles are interesting, thanks, they seem to show the cognitive mechanisms we use to engage in mathematical thinking. I’d rather say that understanding or performing mathematics is, how to say this, cognitively expensive for human minds. It takes an awful lot of effort, because while we have cognitive mechanisms suitable to the task, there not very efficient for that purpose. > Also, I'm not sure how Godel's death is relevant. Godel did a lot of seminal work on how to analyse statements and beliefs and how to reason about their truth or falsehood, yet died as a direct result of holding a (presumably) false belief.
- bmitc 4y ago
  The books those articles summarize are very good, although I haven’t completed either. I’m familiar with Godel, but he was mentally ill. He had several phobias and mental disorders, and at the end, his wife became severely ill and was no longer able to care for and feed him, so he starved himself to death. Mental illness and the fragility of the human mind and psyche have little to do with mathematics being first and foremost a human creation and endeavor.

by bmitc 4y ago

anthk 4y ago

From your link: "It's difficult for me to conceive of a metaphor for a real number raised to a complex power, but if there is one, I'd sure like to see it." — Joseph Auslander" https://www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/questionCorner/complexexp.html https://www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/questionCorner/complexe...

simonh 4y ago

We do grasp mathematics, some of us anyway, so clearly that’s false but I doubt it was meant literally. The linked articles are interesting, thanks, they seem to show the cognitive mechanisms we use to engage in mathematical thinking. I’d rather say that understanding or performing mathematics is, how to say this, cognitively expensive for human minds. It takes an awful lot of effort, because while we have cognitive mechanisms suitable to the task, there not very efficient for that purpose. > Also, I'm not sure how Godel's death is relevant. Godel did a lot of seminal work on how to analyse statements and beliefs and how to reason about their truth or falsehood, yet died as a direct result of holding a (presumably) false belief.

bmitc 4y ago
The books those articles summarize are very good, although I haven’t completed either. I’m familiar with Godel, but he was mentally ill. He had several phobias and mental disorders, and at the end, his wife became severely ill and was no longer able to care for and feed him, so he starved himself to death. Mental illness and the fragility of the human mind and psyche have little to do with mathematics being first and foremost a human creation and endeavor.