Comment by josephg
8 months ago
If you crushed all the atoms in the universe into dust, would the number 2 also be destroyed in the process? I don't know if the mathematical idea of 2 exists in the physical world at all. I don’t know if that’s even a well formed question.
Obviously humans perceive 2-ness. And if you crushed all our minds to dust, nobody would remember 2. But would that really destroy the number? If an alien civilisation in another universe counted things, I think it might be the very same number 2 that they use to count.
I'm not a Platonist.
Do you think numbers were invented or discovered?
Numbers show up in a lot of different cultures. If we all independently reinvented / rediscovered the same thing, that’s interesting - don’t you think?
Does convergent evolution prove that a structure like an eyeball exists in some abstract realm, or does it mean there's a process which - given a similar environment - will produce that structure over time?
It's not hard to see why the same useful inventions emerged in similar environments.