dankane comments on The Fabric of Real Things - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 12 October 2012 02:11AM

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Comment author: Peterdjones 13 October 2012 08:33:45PM 2 points [-]

where g~10 m/s^2.

That's a physcial truth, and a local one at that. The mathematical expression of a physcial fact is not a "mathematocal truth" because, pace Tegmark, most mathematical truths don't model physical facts. What casues objects to fall is gravity. Maths does not cause it, any more than words do.

Comment author: dankane 13 October 2012 11:52:49PM 2 points [-]

I agree that mathematical truths do not have effects on their own. But when combined with mathematical formulations of laws of reality they do have observable consequences. The timing of a falling projectile above is a consequence of both a mathematical formulation of the law of gravity and a purely mathematical arithmetical fact. If you somehow want to describe the universe without mathematics, good luck.