One, Mathematics is the language of nature. Two, Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. Three: If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge. Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature.
I would say there is no language of nature; there are things that happen, and we can approximate what happens using math. Math can be used to describe basically anything, so the fact that we can understand these things through numbers is not extraordinary.
I guess I don’t know what you mean by that. My point was that nature doesn’t speak in any language. There are things that happen do to processes and conditions, we can describe those processes and conditions, we can use them to predict future conditions with math. But the base reality is that things simply exist.
mathematics is a human language/system.
nature just follows the laws and quirks this universe has. the plants, animals and subatomic particles will keep doing the same, regardless if we have a tool or theory that can describe what they’re doing.
sure, there are patterns everywhere in nature, but i would not go as far as to say that that makes mathematics a language of nature.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned that this a quote from the movie Pi.
Here’s a link to the trailer. It has the quote in it. https://youtu.be/r0SC582sJvE
My bad, had to mention it was a quote, I kinda wanted people to search and discover that gem of a movie for themselves
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
“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?
reddits on Lemmy
Its going to be hard changing our vernacular
and no. If you know of any, lemme know
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.
So, what about the stock market? The universe of numbers that represents the global economy. Millions of hands at work, billions of minds.
Great movie.
The guy I’m replying to and i are quoting a movie about a troubled mathematician searching for a pattern in the stock market.
That aside, I disagree with your assertion that economics is a religion. I agree it’s not math though. It uses math to form models for predictive/descriptive purposes, as do a lot of disciplines.
Literally everything ever has patterns that emerge as soon as you start looking for them. Math is only the “language of nature” in that the entire idea behind mathematics is that is must be consistent, otherwise it’s just useless.
Basically, math deroved from the universe (specifically our study of it), and not the other way around.
