Thant Tessman <adm@standarddeviance.com> wrote:
+---------------
| For some unknown and unknowable reason, the universe manifests 
| structure. Our brains have evolved to (among many other things) perceive 
| that structure through our intellect. We may 'create' math, as Hersh 
| seems to be insisting, but the math we create is what it is only because 
| it is a reflection of the structure that genuinely exists outside of our 
| minds.
+---------------

Others might turn this on its head, and prefer to say:

    For some unknown and unknowable reason, our brains have evolved to
    (among many other things) perceive that there "is" an "external"
    universe which appears to manifest structure. Our brains have also
    created the notion of math, which (unsurprisingly) has structure
    which sometimes (but not always) resembles the structure we perceive
    to be in the previously-hypothecated "external universe".

Following Nagarjuna, the Madhyamakan view would be that the truth
of the matter is not the first of these, nor the second, nor both
the first and the second, nor neither the first nor the second.

But this is rapidly drifting off-topic. [Unless, of course, it
happens to lead to a practical demonstration of strong AI, and
then somebody will try to patent it, but that's another story...]


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock			<rpw3@rpw3.org>
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