Is Reality Merely a Mathematical Structure?

The question of whether reality is merely a mathematical structure has been a topic of profound debate among philosophers, physicists, and mathematicians for centuries. At the heart of this debate lies the fundamental nature of the universe and the role of mathematics in understanding it.

Four Fundamental Forces and Mathematics

The four fundamental forces of nature—gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear—interact through fields to generate all known phenomena in the universe. Mathematics, however, does not merely describe these phenomena; it precisely measures, predicts, and accounts for them. The accuracy and power of mathematical models in physics are so impressive that many scholars now speculate that the universe itself is a mathematical structure.

Is Any Reality a Mathematical Structure?

While it is accurate to say that any reality can be described mathematically, not all mathematical structures are reality. Simply put, any mathematical structure that describes the behavior of a system is a useful model, but only a subset of these structures correspond to actual physical reality.

Defining Reality

Reality, in its most concrete sense, is comprised of actions, conditions, states of affairs, energy, things, experiences, and changes that occur. While mathematical structures exist and can accurately describe some aspects of reality, they are not the entirety of what constitutes reality. Concepts such as wishes, hopes, and dreams also exist and form a part of reality.

The Universe: Logical or Random?

The universe appears to operate through a system of logical, mathematical order rather than randomness. Despite the chaotic nature of certain phenomena, the underlying order and predictability suggest that the universe is more structured than random. This order is reflected in the laws of physics and the mathematical models that describe them.

The Supernatural and Beyond

While the arguments for a mathematical universe are compelling, the nature of the universe itself is still a topic of speculation. In my upcoming 650-page book, which will be released in September 2020, I aim to provide a comprehensive narrative of the universe and the nature of existence. These theories, while yet to be peer-reviewed, are based on a digital and mathematical model known as mechanism.

Mathematics and the Physical Universe

According to my research, if we assume mechanism as the only mathematically precise digital version of mechanism, the physical universe can be understood as a statistical appearance arising from elementary arithmetic. This is because all computations are limited to a small part of the arithmetical reality, which is the main reason for the incompleteness observed in quantum mechanics. The physical appearance of the universe is a result of the inability of a universal machine/number to localize itself within the multi-computational canonical structure in arithmetic.

As this recovers the quantum formalism, we can confidently say that nature confirms this model. The evidence indeed suggests that the universe is a mental/epistemic construct by universal numbers, living in simple pure arithmetic since the 1930s.

While mechanism leaves no choice but to acknowledge the immaterial nature of reality, materialist beliefs in some ontological or primitive matter will have to provide evidence for their theories, especially when it comes to primitive material being and the necessarily non-mechanist theory of mind. In science, we can never be absolutely sure, but we can count the evidences in favor of mechanism and its immaterial consequences and virtually none for some primitive material being.

Science brings us back to Pythagoras and Plato, where it all started. The idea that the universe is fundamentally mathematical is far from new, and it continues to be a topic of intense exploration and debate.

For more information and references, please visit the book website.

References:

1. Reference to unpublished work.
2. Reference to peer-reviewed publications.
3. Reference to theoretical works on mechanism and arithmetic.

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