Does math & numbers really exist?

[Drip Bayless]

Nikkaz confusing themselves for no cotdamn reason. No, "1" doesn't exist, it is a object used to identify something, to quantify it, not much different than a name not having much meaning other than identifying a specific human being, i.e. Kenya Moore has no meaning outside of the person that name identifies. You could have changed 1 with a, and 2 with b, and it would have been the same thing, except with letters, not numbers. Clearly, you can can 1 + 1 = 2, because if you have 1 orange in a bag, and you put an additional orange in the bag, now you have 2. Relative to your frame of reference, math exists in clearly quantifiable terms.

This only accounts for the natural numbers. What about the irrational numbers or imaginary numbers?

 

[cKondomsucK6]

Nikkaz confusing themselves for no cotdamn reason. No, "1" doesn't exist, it is a object used to identify something, to quantify it, not much different than a name not having much meaning other than identifying a specific human being, i.e. Kenya Moore has no meaning outside of the person that name identifies. You could have changed 1 with a, and 2 with b, and it would have been the same thing, except with letters, not numbers. Clearly, you can can 1 + 1 = 2, because if you have 1 orange in a bag, and you put an additional orange in the bag, now you have 2. Relative to your frame of reference, math exists in clearly quantifiable terms.

1 orange in a bag , plus 1 more orange in the bag equals 2 oranges in the bag

thread over /

 

[Shogun]

General answer from philosophy is that while numbers do not exist as a physical object, they do exist as metaphysical...and some (who go deep down the rabbit hole) would argue that metaphysical existence is even more "real".

An interesting way to think about it is unicorns. Do unicorns exist? No...not physically. But, when I say "unicorn" you know exactly what I'm talking about and we could have an intelligible discussion about them....so how could they be completely nonexistent?

It's basically Platonism.

Regardless, it's a question that very smart people have spent a long time contemplating, so anyone who simply brushes it off as stupid probably hasn't put much thought into to.

 

[GnauzBookOfRhymes]

I think math is just a "language" that allows humans to "translate" natural phenomena which we cannot fully comprehend.



I don't think we will ever truly understand how math and nature seem to just work together so seamlessly.

There are examples of mathematicians coming up with equations/concepts hundreds of years ago that didn't serve any tangible purpose at the time - they were just pure math theories - but then hundreds of years later it turns out they perfectly describe/explain/predict some modern scientific problem

 

[Hawaiian Punch]

Animals that can do math understand more language than we think

Numerical abilities have been identified in many different species, most prominently chimpanzees. Some of these capabilities demonstrate that the animals understand the underlying connections between different words and labels. They are therefore doing something more than just mimicking the sounds and actions of the humans around them.

The remarkable ways animals understand numbers

the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri. It has a special property that allows it to produce light through a process called bioluminescence, similar to how fireflies give off light. If these bacteria are in dilute water solutions (where they are essentially alone), they make no light. But when they grow to a certain cell number of bacteria, all of them produce light simultaneously. Therefore, Vibrio fischeri can distinguish when they are alone and when they are together.

This behaviour is called “quorum sensing” – the bacteria vote with signalling molecules, the vote gets counted, and if a certain threshold (the quorum) is reached, every bacterium responds. This behaviour is not just an anomaly of Vibrio fischeri – all bacteria use this sort of quorum sensing to communicate their cell number in an indirect way via signalling molecules.


Remarkably, quorum sensing is not confined to bacteria – animals use it to get around, too. Japanese ants (Myrmecina nipponica), for example, decide to move their colony to a new location if they sense a quorum. In this form of consensus decision making, ants start to transport their brood together with the entire colony to a new site only if a defined number of ants are present at the destination site. Only then, they decide, is it safe to move the colony.

wolves have an optimal group size for hunting different prey. For elks, capture success levels off at two to six wolves. However, for bison, the most formidable prey, nine to 13 wolves are the best guarantor of success. Therefore, for wolves, there is “strength in numbers” during hunting, but only up to a certain number that is dependent on the toughness of their prey.

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

Didnt read the replies but yes math exists. It’s a science and science is the observation of our natural world with the five sense given plus our reasoning. If we ceased to exist right now there would be the same number of things as they are now. It’s almost like the question of trees falling in a forest and if they make a noise. If it made a noise when you were there then reason would have you believe that it would still make a noise if you weren’t there.

I think time also exists since it’s a measurement from one moment to another. Now obviously it’s not the year 2021 but we can clearly measure time through various sciences (carbon dating, observation of old or dying stars, life cycles of organisms, etc) so to me, time exists.

 

[Devilinurear]

Math and numbers do not physically exist.

 

[null]

1 orange in a bag , plus 1 more orange in the bag equals 2 oranges in the bag

then you have two oranges not two "1's" ya doofus

 

[Carl Tethers]

I went too far down the rabbit hole with this shyt when I got into reading Wittgenstein, Frege and Russell, so I'm not breaking my brain again

 

[null]

I went too far down the rabbit hole with this shyt when I got into reading Wittgenstein, Frege and Russell, so I'm not breaking my brain again

but is math(s) real breh? is it natural? is it being discovered or is it being invented?

what does #coli-science say?

 

[Carl Tethers]

but is math(s) real breh? is it natural? is it being discovered or is it being invented?

what does #coli-science say?

fukking magnets.. How do they work?

 

[null]

fukking magnets.. How do they work?