Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The whole "math is a universal" language is particularly laughable to me considering it is a formal system and the universe is observably irregular.

As I am wont to say: regularity is only ever achieved at the price of generality.



Many mathematical structures are 'irregular'. That's not a very strong argument against math as a universal descriptor.


see reply above


Think about what math is trying to formalize


Math formalizes regularities by abstracting away irregularities - that's precisely my point. Any formal system achieves its regularity by limiting its scope. Math can describe aspects of reality with precision, but it cannot capture reality's full complexity. A 'universal language' that can only express what fits into formal systems isn't universal at all: it's a specialized tool that works within constrained domains.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: