Re: Theory of Everything based on E8 by Garrett Lisi

From: Torgny Tholerus <torgny.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:51:36 +0100

marc.geddes@gmail.com skrev:

On Nov 23, 8:49 pm, Torgny Tholerus <tor...@dsv.su.se> wrote:
  

I think that everything is reducible to physical substances and
properties.  And I think that all of physics is reducible to pure
mathematics...
    

You can't have it both ways.  If physics was reducible to pure
mathematics, then physics could not be the 'ontological base level' of
reality and hence everything could not be expressed solely in terms of
physical substance and properties.

Besides which, mathematics and physics are dealing with quite
different distinctions.  It is a 'type error' it try to reduce or
identity one with the other.

Mathematics deals with logical properties, physics deals with spatial
(geometric) properties.  Although geometry is thought of as math, it
is actually a branch of physics, since in addition to pure logical
axioms, all geometry involves 'extra' assumptions or axioms which are
actually *physical* in nature (not purely mathematical) .
  

When I talk about "pure mathematics" I mean that kind of mathematics you have in GameOfLife.  There you have "gliders" that move in the GameOfLife-universe, and these gliders interact with eachother when they meet.  These gliders you can see as physical objects.  These physical objects are reducible to pure mathematics, they are the consequences of the rules behind GameOfLife.

--
Torgny

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Received on Mon Nov 26 2007 - 04:51:49 PST