08w27:2 Max Tegmark Posted July 3rd, 2008 by timothy. 0 Comments Goodreads | 2008 week 27 number 2 (Max Tegmark) The summary, as I’ve understood it. ‘if 2 + 2 =4 and that means the same things as two plus two equals four or deux et deux egale a quatre then the equation points to something independent of the symbols we use to represent it, and further, it represents patterns independent of the language and symbology of human beings. Contrast this with Richard Rorty’s claims (as I understand them) that it is precisely this use of symbolic language which suggests there is nothing inherent in the Universe – no underlying Truth or nature. For Rorty, 2 + 2 = 4 is only true for those of us who understand what those symbols mean. In other words, it’s a quirk of our mind to assume that just because we recognize a relationship/pattern and use words to describe it, doesn’t mean it actually exists independent of our minds. Like, we recognize ‘fingers’ and have words in each language to describe them, but absent human beings human fingers would not exist. Thus, absent human beings, a universe described by human math would not exist either. – Timothy Is the Universe Actually Made of Math? http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com/shorty/discovermagazine/tegmark/ Max Tegmark | Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Tegmark Max Tegmark | MIT (Homepage) http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/index.html The Mathamatical Universe http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0704/0704.0646v2.pdf Shut up and Calculate (the so called ‘Director’s Cut’ of The Mathamatical Universe) http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0709/0709.4024v1.pdf Many lives in many worlds http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0707/0707.2593v1.pdf
