barrington interview

Gerry Quinn · 09 Oct 2014, 14:02 · from 2014-October.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 15:02:21 +0100
Subject: (urth) barrington interview
In-Reply-To: <CA+Z2yj3=L4fZ_S+JuyEWSEPOKFWbweHfZohGa6sKirN90L_8+Q at mail.gmail.com>
References: <BLU175-W20DD772BFB7827BB84B1BFCFA20 at phx.gbl>
	<CA+Z2yj3=L4fZ_S+JuyEWSEPOKFWbweHfZohGa6sKirN90L_8+Q at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5436956D.2070006 at bindweed.com>


On 08/10/2014 14:35, Thomas Bitterman wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 6:25 PM, Lee <severiansola at hotmail.com 
> <mailto:severiansola at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I've had this debate before and I know it can be disturbing to the
>     purely science/mathematically
>     minded. But math isn't really "universal". It  a system of
>     calculation created by the human mind
>     which is part of a primate brain evolved from more primitive
>     mammalian ancestors.
>
>
> Is there an argument against the universality of mathematics that 
> isn't  just the Genetic Fallacy?

I think it's universal.  Basically mathematics is a fractal set of 
strings made from other strings by following rules, and it's possible to 
embed the rules in the fractal.  All mathematics can be encoded entirely 
inside the standard arithmetic of the natural numbers, or simple 
geometry on a plane.

- Gerry Quinn
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