Maybe a universe that was completely explainable and provable couldn’t exist.
Mathematics
A pi test of Einstein’s theory of general relativity
The theory passed another recent test, which led to a science writer’s reflections on the strangeness of pi, the irrational number that pops up everywhere.
Gödel’s proof of the existence of God
You didn’t know, possibly, that when he thought we was dying, he showed the notebook to one of his colleagues, who copied out the proof.
New at Inference Review: On the Mind-Machine Problem
Pachon: After all the tangle of modernism, Gödel left us as at the beginning: it is not merely that we cannot make a determination, but that even our most formal systems require faith—just like before modernism began.
Infinite patterns, beautifully expressed
Also, earlier:, a friend writes to say, this follows up Cristobal Vila’s 5-million-views classic from 2010, Nature By the Numbers: Sleep tight.
Eric Holloway: Math shows why the mind can’t be reduced to a formula
Holloway: The fundamental implication is that nothing within math, science, and technology can create information. Yet information is all around us. This problem arises in many areas: evolution, artificial intelligence, economics, and physics.
SIR — “Simple” Basics of Epidemics
Here is a simple SIR model — Susceptible- Infected- Removed: Here, “removed” can be by recovery or death. Obviously parameters are not exact so the next level would explore randomised changes in possible values and time varying models; noting particular clusters that give dramatic outcomes. The S(t) line is an inverted cumulative case curve — Read More…
Pondering the universe’s geometry
Why would a spherical Earth be “unfathomable”? Once the Sun and the Moon were seen as spheres, whatever the universe as a whole might be like, it seems logical that Earth would be a sphere too.
Edward Feser on mathematics and the sense of the divine
Feser: Mathematical truths exhibit infinity, necessity, eternity, immutability, perfection, and immateriality because they are God’s thoughts, and they have such explanatory power in scientific theorizing because they are part of the blueprint implemented by God in creating the world.
Mysterious link between physics and math?
Involving quantum mechanics: In an enormously complicated 165-page paper, computer scientist Zhengfeng Ji and colleagues present a result that penetrates to the heart of deep questions about math, computing and their connection to reality. It’s about a procedure for verifying the solutions to very complex mathematical propositions, even some that are believed to be impossible Read More…
The remarkable connection between mathematics and physics
According to Mullings, the reason for the association between mathematics and physics is not that the mathematics is causative but rather that mathematics studies the logical structure of possibility and constraint. As a result, if the mathematics successfully captures the possibilities and constraints in the real world, it will provide a tool for further analysis of potential possibilities.
Journalist Douglas Murray reflects on the progressive war on science
Math is something we can use but cannot overthrow. Is that why progressives hate it so much?
Faith: Even mathematics depends on some unprovable assumptions
Pachón: The result was shattering. Gödel showed the limitations of any formal axiomatic system in modeling basic arithmetic. He showed that no axiomatic system could be complete and consistent at the same time.
A visual meditation on infinite patterns in nature
And to think that some want us to believe that there is no underlying pattern or meaning and it all just happened…
A visual meditation on the numbers that design nature
By Cristóbal Vila NATURE BY NUMBERS from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo. Hat tip: Philip Cunningham