Related papers: Some comments on "The Mathematical Universe"
I advocate an extreme "shut-up-and-calculate" approach to physics, where our external physical reality is assumed to be purely mathematical. This brief essay motivates this "it's all just equations" assumption and discusses its…
Present day mathematics is a human construct, where computers are used more and more but do not play a creative role. This situation may change however: computers may become creative, and since they function very differently from the human…
We present a list of open questions in mathematical physics. After a historical introduction, a number of problems in a variety of different fields are discussed, with the intention of giving an overall impression of the current status of…
This paper examines various methods and ideas for humanizing mathematics. The term 'humanizing mathematics' which includes elements of 'aesthetic mathematics' refers to approaches that emphasize the aesthetic, philosophical, and subjective…
Mathematics and its relation to the physical universe have been the topic of speculation since the days of Pythagoras. Several different views of the nature of mathematics have been considered: Realism - mathematics exists and is…
This paper establishes grounds for deeper exploration into the question of dual nature of mathematics as an abstract discipline and as a concrete science. It is argued, as one of the consequences of the discussion, that the division into…
In this note some philosophical thoughts and observations about mathematics are expressed, arranged as challenges to some common claims.
The aim of this essay is to propose a conception of mathematics that is fully consonant with naturalism. By that I mean the hypothesis that everything that exists is part of the natural world, which makes up a unitary whole.
In this essay, I argue that mathematics is a natural science---just like physics, chemistry, or biology---and that this can explain the alleged "unreasonable" effectiveness of mathematics in the physical sciences. The main challenge for…
The mathematical universe discussed here gives models of possible structures our physical universe can have.
Is speculative mathematics dangerous? Recent interactions between physics and mathematics pose the question with some force: traditional mathematical norms discourage speculation, but it is the fabric of theoretical physics. In practice…
The authors discuss various objections and rejoinders in the collected responses [math.HO/9404229,math.HO/9404236] to their original article on the relationship between mathematics and theoretical physics [math.HO/9307227].
The world of mathematics is often considered abstract, with its symbols, concepts, and topics appearing unrelated to physical objects. However, it is important to recognize that the development of mathematics is fundamentally influenced by…
I explore physics implications of the External Reality Hypothesis (ERH) that there exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans. I argue that with a sufficiently broad definition of mathematics, it implies the…
Being mathematics a natural language to Mankind and to physics, it must be constantly adapted to our necessities and our natural perception. Then, mathematical concepts are not absolute to reality. Although mathematical theories are…
Partial descriptions of the Universe are presented in the form of linear equations considered in the free (full, super) Fock space. The universal properties of these equations are discussed. The closure problem caused by computational and…
Both metamathematics and physics are posited to emerge from samplings by observers of the unique ruliad structure that corresponds to the entangled limit of all possible computations. The possibility of higher-level mathematics accessible…
We claim that human mathematics is only a limited part of the consequences of the chosen basic axioms. Properly human mathematics varies with time but appears to have universal features which we try to analyze. In particular the functioning…
More than a speculative technology, quantum computing seems to challenge our most basic intuitions about how the physical world should behave. In this thesis I show that, while some intuitions from classical computer science must be…
The author recalls general tendencies of the "mathematization" of the sciences and derives challenges and tentative obstructions for a successful merger of mathematics and physics on fancied steps towards "Quantum Gravity". This is an…