[HPFGU-OTChatter] Maths vs Science

[Andrew MacIan]

Greetings from Andrew!

Let's see if we can agree on a simplification....

--- Tabouli <tabouli at unite.com.au> wrote:
{snip}

> 
> My problem with maths is that it seemed very
> pointless to me... they give you a handful of
> meaningless numbers and letters, you spend a page or
> so of mucking around with them, and what do you get?
>  More meaningless numbers and letters!  Why bother? 
> The beauty of symbols and numbers, ensnaring the
> mind, bewitching the senses, etc. only holds any
> interest for me if it can be *applied* to something
> more interesting.
> 

The way I look at (and teach) mathematics, what I do
is to learn the rules to a vastly, perhaps
incomprehensibly so, game.  The more I know, the
better I play the game.  The better I play the game,
the more I *can* know.  In my particualr case, my
principle game is homological algebra and
category/topos theory.

In the pure instances, these are areas of interest to
other 'Players of Games' (with apologies to Iain
Banks, of course).  The game we play is a specific
case of the universal knowledge/academic game.

In the applied (so to speak) instances, category
theory is one of the foundations of all, *all*, other
mathematics.  It is also the basic desciption of
object-oriented database and programming systems.

> On these grounds, give me science any day.  Sure, it
> has maths in it, but it's *interesting* maths, it
> *means* something!  What I'm into is communication
> (hence learning languages, writing HPFGU messages,
> etc.), and understanding (a) the natural world (I
> have a Tolkienesque preference for natural phenomena
> over machines), and (b) human behaviour.  Maths
> which helps me understand how we could make Mars
> inhabitable, or how a bird flies... now *that* is
> interesting.  I'm sure we only have the maths to
> understand these things because some people, like
> Drieux, are interested in numbers of the sake of
> numbers, but I'm happy to leave them to it and hear
> from them at the end when they've found a use for
> them!
{snip}

Thanks!  Ego-boo is always appreciated!
So...Keep watching the skies!

ooopps...wrong group....

Physics/all engineering is only (so to speak) applied
mathematics.  This includes communication theory, of
course.  Just as chemistry and biology are only (so to
speak) applied physics.

Perhaps the right way to look at this is take the
original Greek position that math is just a branch of
philosophy.  I can be quite happy with that.

Cheers,

Drieux

=====
ICQ # 76184391

'Each game of chess means there's one less
      Variation left to be played;
 Each day got through means one or two less
      Mistakes remain to be made.'
      --'Chess' by Sir Tim Rice

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