• Herr WolandOP
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    1 year ago

    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.

    Edit: it’s a quote from this excellent movie, pi: https://youtu.be/yRjkQT9xLZs

    • @quazar
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      1 year ago

      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 unnatural 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

      • @SwallowsDick
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        81 year ago

        draws a straight line

        “Fuck you, God”

        • @quazar
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          31 year ago

          I ❤️ this so much. Thank you 😁

      • Herr WolandOP
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        71 year ago

        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.

        • @SwallowsDick
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          111 year ago

          This could be a new modifiable copypasta

          • @Vupperware
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            121 year ago

            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.

        • @quazar
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          1 year ago

          Oh yeah I saw it. Weird movie. 94143243431512659321054872390486828512913474876027671959234602385829583047250165232525929692572765 53643634627271840120126431475463294501278472648410756223478962672859285829534750277226264645621761 3984829519475412398501 😁

          • Herr WolandOP
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            11 year ago

            You gave me only half of the answer where is the other half? :D

      • @Mobilityfuture
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        41 year ago

        Hey Quazar,

        Great point and post. Any math + philosophy reddits you know of on Lemme?

        • @quazar
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          21 year ago

          reddits on Lemmy

          Its going to be hard changing our vernacular

          and no. If you know of any, lemme know

          • @Mobilityfuture
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            11 year ago

            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.

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        “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.

    • Pitri
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      211 year ago

      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.

    • @sosodev
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      1 year ago

      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

      • Herr WolandOP
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        31 year ago

        My bad, had to mention it was a quote, I kinda wanted people to search and discover that gem of a movie for themselves

        • @sosodev
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          51 year ago

          That’s a pretty niche movie. I agree it’s great but most people will only know it’s a quote if you tell them.

          • Herr WolandOP
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            21 year ago

            Yeah totally agree, I edited my comment to make it more clear.

            • @sosodev
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              11 year ago

              Bro how you go and link a way better trailer. You made me realize that I missed a really cool opportunity for one my favorite movies :(

    • @[email protected]
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      91 year ago

      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.

      • @sauerkraus
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        11 year ago

        I would say all language are natural. Even mathematics.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 year ago

          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.

          • @sauerkraus
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            11 year ago

            I meant that existence is nature. Following from that, anything which exists is nature or natural.

          • @sauerkraus
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            1 year ago

            Art and humour are inevitable consequences of sentient animals having the capability to create them.

            I think of it like squares and rectangles. Everything created by humans is natural, but only a fraction of natural things are created by humans.

            There is a natural progression from some particles colliding at the beginning of the universe all the way to low effort memes being posted on Lemmy.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 year ago

              You’re operating with a RIDICULOUSLY overbroad definition of “natural” that includes pretty much everything artificial 🤦

              • @sauerkraus
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                01 year ago

                Is it not natural for humans to create artificial tools?

                  • @sauerkraus
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                    01 year ago

                    Yes. Man-made and artificial things are natural.

    • @[email protected]
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      71 year ago

      I’d say this is a matter of philosophical preference. Everything you described can be explained as human perception using numbers and math to interpret reality. This doesn’t mean that math somehow is the substructure underneath everything that is.

      HOWEVER: The more I learn about computer science and information theory, the more I look at everything being built from bits - elementary particles can be looked at the same as a capacitor in a ram stick holding a TRUE or FALSE state, abstractly.

      Still, I understand and can advocate for the idea that math isn’t necessarily some magic code underlying everything, even if that sounds convincing. Call it an exercise in holding two opposing ideas in one’s mind at the same time.

      I see both ideas as being viable.

    • @blue_zephyr
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      51 year ago

      Mathematics is the language of our monkey brains. It’s an attempt to describe nature.

    • @[email protected]
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      31 year ago

      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.

      • Herr WolandOP
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        11 year ago

        so, does it mean that the math is a way of decoding the simulation

    • @[email protected]
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      21 year ago

      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.

      • @quazar
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        11 year ago

        Economics is not math, its a religion.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          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.

      • @quazar
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        11 year ago

        The golden ratio is a transcendental number, but it is the “least transcendental” of the transcendental numbers.

      • Herr WolandOP
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        21 year ago

        yes it is, no idea why I’m getting down voted so heavily haha