Posted by
glen e. p. ropella-2 on
Apr 28, 2009; 3:28pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/The-Unreasonable-Effectiveness-of-Mathematics-in-the-Natural-Sciences-tp2714601p2734193.html
Thus spake Steve Smith circa 04/26/2009 06:06 PM:
> Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>>
>> Why should nature give a fig for the tricks we play with our words?
>
> The Anthropic Principle might have a play in this.
I think this is the fundamental reason for the unreasonableness. Math,
like any other language, helps us be goal-oriented. And anything that
helps us be goal-oriented will _seem_ true to us, regardless of whether
it is true or not.
This is the situation for just about any method: burning witches,
hunting Communists, making marijuana illegal, worshiping mythical
beings, meditating surrounded by crystals and incense, voodoo dolls,
murdering people in foreign lands, torturing enemy combatants, etc. If
it focuses our attention and allows us to maintain focus on some
objective, then, as a tool, it _is_ useful and will _seem_ true.
When it ceases to be useful, we will be surprised, sit back, and wonder
why we were so enamored with it before... and many of us will even poke
fun of and deride those people who still find it useful.
--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095,
http://agent-based-modeling.com============================================================
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