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Permalink Reply by Jaume on August 7, 2009 at 5:29pm

You won't find, on this planet, two brains which are wired exactly the same. Thus, when we both think "42", we don't necessarily use the same set of neurons (it's extremely likely we don't), and the physico-chemical reactions ("energy") that produce this thought are extremely likely to be very different at the molecular level or lower. Heck, it's even true when you think "42" now, and "42" again next month.

From your perspective, I conclude that 42 never equals 42, since these numbers are defined by their underlying physical nature, or energy, which varies with time and place.

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Permalink Reply by Derek Schrock on August 7, 2009 at 6:04pm

I like your choice of 42.

I would agree that 42 from the perspective of different minds never equals 42 but I think you are putting everything under the term concept and I'm starting to think that that's my fault for being unclear. What you described is how we represent them in our minds. I am saying that there's more to their existence. Numbers (such as 42) and equations exist in nature, apart from our perception of them, in the form of relationships of energy. Even if the energetic environments in which we find two "42's" vary I don't think that that means these numbers change value. I think you are touching on the point that we can define a number by it's environment, again I don't see how this changes it. 42 as a general value, to me, is the conglomerate of all the energetic relationships where 42 exists.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on August 10, 2009 at 1:15pm

What you seem to be talking about is organization of information. Generally, in physics, we think of information as properties of entities (mass, energy, etc). The descriptions of them using math is just that, descriptions. The actual equations don't have any more or less 'realness' than this sentence. Math is a language for describing our physical world. It's not more perfect than English is, but it's specialized to look at things in a way that works for a lot of us doing particular tasks. No one would ask you to run down to the store and bring them chips in math the same way no one would try to make predictions on particle placement using English.

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