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 to solve. In essence, the new finding boils down to demonstrating a vast gulf between infinite and almost infinite, with huge implications for certain high-profile math problems. Seeing into that gulf, it turns out, requires the mysterious power of quantum physics.
Tom Siegfried, “How a quantum technique highlights math’s mysterious link to physics” at ScienceNews
It’s not entirely clear why a link between physics and math should be mysterious. If mathematics underlies the universe, we ought to expect such links.
Of course, some people may believe that mathematics is an illusion generated by the human brain to aid survival and reproduction. But that is their lookout.
As to these comments from the article,
Well sorry to disappoint you Tom Siegfried but your belief that “Maybe even one (physics) will someday explain the other (mathematics)” is simply out of the question.
As Alexander Vilenkin noted, at one time the physical universe itself did not exist and thus we are stuck with the question of “where did the laws of quantum theory come from?” Vilenken even dares to ask, “Does this mean that the laws are not mere descriptions of reality and can have an independent existence of their own? In the absence of space, time, and matter, what tablets could they be written upon? The laws are expressed in the form of mathematical equations. If the medium of mathematics is the mind, does this mean that mind should predate universe?,,,”
In fact, besides the physical universe itself, (i.e. all space, time, and matter), having a beginning, and therefore the physical universe itself being causally incomplete, mathematics itself is also incomplete,
Thus since the physical universe and mathematics itself are both ‘incomplete’, then it necessarily follows that ,, “the transcendent reality on which our universe depends must be something that can exhibit agency – a mind that can choose among the infinite variety of mathematical descriptions and bring into existence a reality that corresponds to a consistent subset of them. This is what “breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe.”
I also note that Tom Siegfried backed off using the word ‘miracle’ from Wigner’s essay on ‘the unreasonable effectiveness of Mathematics’, and instead opted to highlight the word ‘mysterious’ from the essay,
Myself, I prefer to highlight the word ‘miracle’ that Wigner used, several times, in his essay.
Einstein himself did not hesitate to use the “Miracle” word, and Einstein even went so far as to chastise ‘professional atheists’ in the process of using the ‘Miracle’ word..
I will conclude with a quote from mathematician John Lennox
>One expert, upon hearing the news, compared his feces to bricks.
Why were they asking a mason about math problems?
as to this comment from the article,
Actually, Godel’s incompleteness plays into that as well,
In essence, the new finding boils down to demonstrating a vast gulf between infinite and almost infinite
“Almost infinite”, eh? This is a new one for me but I can’t bring myself to read the full article. I never believed in the crackpottery of infinity but “almost infinite” has crushed any faith I might have had. This is embarrassing for a science writer.
BA77:
Well done. I’m particularly delighted with your quotes from ‘latter-day’ Einstein. Einstein was, of course, very religious as a youth, but later much influenced by positivists. He outgrew them, apparently.
Pav, you might appreciate this as well