AnotherIdiot comments on The Emergence of Math - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (44)
There aren't any apples in reality. There are, arguably, atoms, and let's stop there and not go further to quantum states, elementary particles, virtual particles, etc. We can allow for the sake of the argument that there are atoms. But there certainly aren't any apples in reality. There're lots of atoms everywhere, and some of them are bunched together in a somewhat different way than some other ones, and the boundary between them is inherently fuzzy. Apples exist in your mind.
Discreteness on a micro level is arguable, but irrelevant to your everyday perception; discreteness on a macro level only exists in your mind. Out there in reality, there are just atoms.
I know. But it's easier to talk about apples than atoms. And the apples are just another level of abstractions. From atoms emerge apples, and from apples emerge [natural] numbers.