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pestatijeyesterday at 7:06 AM3 repliesview on HN

doesn't that also apply for the maths-> physics layer? id say maths is the bottom layer


Replies

jeremyjhyesterday at 12:24 PM

Yes, we've all seen the xkcd[1] but you've misunderstood it. Physics applies mathematics but mathematics cannot derive physics in the way that a complete physics (and a lot of compute) could derive chemistry and biochemistry.

Math isn't attempting to describe a physical universe. It provides the substrate upon which such a description can be expressed and validated - found to be consistent with itself - but many valid descriptions do not describe our universe. Physics is the empirical search for the correct mathematical description of our universe.

[1] https://xkcd.com/435/

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not-a-llmyesterday at 10:29 AM

yet there are problems there too we do not know the "true axioms of math", people disagree (math foundations)

exe34yesterday at 7:29 AM

Maths lacks the physical grounding, so in that sense, it's less "real", and more "made up", even though of course it's so pure.

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