2019-01-17, 03:26 AM
Mathematical Structure and Vedanta Philosophy
Quote:If the universe can be reduced to a pure mathematical structure, then descriptions of enlightenment within the Vedanta tradition gain a new fresh perspective
I’m about three-quarters of the way through MIT physicist Max Tegmark’s book called: Our Mathematical Universe. In it, he argues that the universe can be fundamentally thought of as a pure mathematical structure. He defines this as: a set of abstract entities with relations between them. He begins his argument by outlining three levels of reality — Internal, Consensus and External.
Internal Reality consists of our subjective perceptions of the world. It is plagued by our own personal biases, as well as the multitude of heuristics embedded in our cognition.
Consensus Reality is the world as we experience it collectively. This is reality independent of our subjective lens. It is governed by the laws of classical physics. This reality isn’t free from illusion — but it aims at being free from personal distortion. It is determined collaboratively, answering the question: what is a stable conception of the world that the majority of humans can agree on.
External Reality is the way reality actually is. Once we try to see beyond our subjective position and see through our heuristics, we can then wonder about the fundamental nature of the world. What is the basis of consensus reality?
Tegmark claims that the link between Internal and Consensus reality is the domain of cognitive science, whereas the link from Consensus to External is the realm of Physics. His claim is that external reality is isomorphic to a mathematical structure. Namely, the features of our consensus reality, at the deepest level, are purely mathematical quantities. As an example, subatomic particles cannot meaningfully be thought to be small balls or planet-like structures. Instead, a total description of them simply involves fixing parameters such as angular momentum, principle quantum number and so on. At the deepest level, these particles are simply a set of numbers.