Re: Let There Be Something

From: Jesse Mazer <lasermazer.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2005 13:07:42 -0500

Tom wrote:

>
>Perhaps there needs to be a new thread for the new topic (Game of Life,
>etc.).
>
>It seems my original inquiry has been left unanswered, but this is my
>point. My challenge was that multiverse theory is just pulling things out
>of thin air just as much as any other metaphysical theory. At each point
>in the history of science, science needs an external foundation to stand
>on, and by definition this is extra-science. Cluttering up the picture with
>"Everything" doesn't solve the problem at all. The multiverse is a
>tautology. Attributing meaning to it is a statement of faith.
>
>Tom
>

What about answering your question in terms of mathematical platonism? It
seems to me that even if I try to imagine an absolute "nothing", it would
still somehow be true that 1+1=2, even if there was nothing to count and no
one to be conscious of this fact...the statement "1+1=2" means something
like "it is true that *if* you had 1 object and added 1 object you would
have 2 objects", and that statement is true regardless of whether you
actually have any objects. But once we say that mathematical forms have some
sort of necessary existence, we can view our universe (or our
observer-moment) as just one of many possible platonic mathematical forms,
perceived "from the inside". But mathematical platonism assumes that all
possible mathematical forms exist, and so they should seem just as real to
any observers they contain, leading to the "Everything" view.

Jesse
Received on Mon Nov 07 2005 - 13:12:24 PST