Steve Smith wrote:
> Russ Abbott wrote:
>> Awhile ago on this thread I said that mathematics is effective because
>> there are regularities in nature. No one commented on that.
Well, sometimes people miss postings and are too swamped by work/life to
respond. I suspect that was why I didn't comment... I'm usually a sure
bite for such bait. ;-)
> Seriously.  I clearly believe it is important to make the distinction
> between a (non)provable, absolute truth (The Universe IS Mathematics)
> and a practical, working model that Mathematics is very useful for
> describing the Physical Universe.  Science is about measurement,
> about hypothesis generation and testing, and about repeatability. It
> is grounded in the idea of a separate, independent-of-mind physical
> Universe.   I don't think this understanding, however, precludes the
> possibility that what *appears* to our minds as an independent,
> separately realized, physical Universe, is "merely" a projection of the
> mind (whatever that is).
I think this can be fortified to a stronger statement. I tend to
subscribe to the idea that reality is constructed by (and constructs)
that which composes it ("impredicativity"). Hence, there is no "out
there" in isolation from "in here", just as there is no "in here" in
isolation from "out there". Hence, there is no absolute truth and,
likewise solipsism is false.
Although we _think_ science is grounded in the idea of an "out there", I
speculate that it's not. Science is grounded in _behavior_, not thought
or knowledge. Any ideas we may entertain as a result of the behaviors,
the (transpersonal) methods, is an abstract (and therefore inaccurate)
conception of objects, stuff, ... but it's really a tightly knotted
holarchy of stuff and process. And the stuff, as well as the behaviors
are transient.
Hence, the _value_ we find in "sharing" our ideas doesn't really lie in
how accurately they describe reality. The value lies in the fact that
the more _attention_ we can recruit to a given perspective or aspect,
the more we can construct the world to be the way we want it to be.
If everyone thinks wildly differently, then the network is too loose and
we swim in chaos. If everyone thinks the same, then the network
collapses to a single node and we freeze in order. But with the right
balance of homo- and hetero-geneous attention, we can manipulate the
universe in appreciable ways.
At the end of the day, a good maxim is the ancient aphorism: "Know ten
things, say nine."
--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com
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