Are Numbers Real? Is Maths Real? Or Is It Just A Construct By Humans? Philosophical Questions and Youtube Videos!

Are Numbers Real?

Lately I have been pondering over numbers, which to the right kind of mind are a wealth of; interest, mystique, creativity & logic (I will cover a topic to that of 'the right kind of mind' at a later date under the name Maths gets a bad press) but a significant question arises when thinking about maths... Is it real? This question while rhetorical to you has been on the minds of philosophers for generations, from my deductive work I have come across three schools of thought on this.

1. Platonism - All numbers are some form of abstract objects that EXIST as a fundamental part of reality, our use of mathematics can be seen as a description of how these objects interact. Numbers, functions and any other form of mathematical expression are discovered NOT invented.

Unsurprisingly Platonism was first conjectured by Plato (of the famous GCSE a²+b²=c² in right angle triangles formula) he tended to treat his maths as a cult with followers who would publically beat people for not knowing maths. This may seem absurd to think of at first, thinking there are an infinite amount of all the possible numbers being stored somewhere abstract  can at first seem a copout¹ however as this is philosophy basically anything goes. It is generally not widely believed today on account of it being a bit out there. (pardon my obvious biases)

A description of maths now with added children's toys.

Of course some numbers are more abstract then others...

2. Nominalism - The real objects in the universe represent all numbers, maths is an integral part of our universe that is in place to make the universe work. Numbers, functions and any other form of mathematical expression are discovered NOT invented .

This may seem a likely alternative to Platonism we can confidently relate to real word objects more than abstract ones, 'is a bird in the hand worth two in the brush?' well according to the universe the IS a greater number of birds in the bush to your hand, likewise for any form of object; pencils, computers, white boards, sticky notes ect. of course I'm being somewhat facetious (pardon my obvious biases).What it really means is the universe is bound by maths at a fundamental level. So a satellite falling from a its curved geostationary orbit is forced to land the specific way it does due to the mathematics of the universe preventing it landing via any other; curved, strait or higgledy-piggledy path.

The problem with  nominalism depicted in a comic.

3. Fictionalism - Numbers are concepts invented by humans to describe the world around us the fabric of reality dose not rest on any type of numbers actually existing it just does what it does without any laws of mathematics behind it. Numbers, functions and any other form of mathematical expression are invented NOT discovered.

It may at first seem like how does this work at all if the world doesn't have some form of maths embedded into it? But just imagine maths as the tools we are using to pick apart how the universe is working. We use this tool to describe and explain just what exactly is going on it has no bias to exist in the actual universe and just gives us the numbers on what we think should happen.

Every ONE has days like this... *Crickets*

Now for the conclusion in my opinion fictionalism is the most accurate definition of what maths is I don't personally believe that we exist because of maths making everything work and I do believe that when Isaac Newton invented calculus² he actually invented it, however I have just stated my views here to show my biases so you will consider them when reading³. throughout the descriptions I stated weather mathematicians discover/invent "new" maths this is an important point as an inventor creates and a explorer discovers stuff, this is leading to the discussion of weather they are discovering the mathematics laid down by the fabric of reality⁴ or if a new form of maths is created purely by the inventor of that form of maths.

Links to stuff REALLY WORTH WATCHING!

*Warning I found some links try to sway people to their beliefs mainly by comparing one of the other schools of thought to religion. I have tried to stay away from this in my description but if you hear this discussed somewhere they are usually using it as a tactic to discredit that school of thought by comparison to the illogical, which generally sways an otherwise overwhelmingly rational audience*

"Is Math a Feature of the Universe or a Feature of Human Creation? | Idea Channel | PBS" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbNymweHW4E

"Do numbers EXIST? - Numberphile" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EGDCh75SpQ

¹The image of God with his infinite trophy case of all numbers, right next to his bookcase containing the elegant solutions to all possible functions comes into mind.

² Or Gottfried Leibniz if you are a Leibniz man.

³I don't want to unwitting dupe you into my way of thinking aren't I good :-)

⁴ Picking Gods brain for his secrets of how he made everything work

Video games are not new or a niche market they are a multi billion dollar industry played by half a billion people worldwide.

In 1972 Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell asked an engineer named Allan Alcorn to create a simple game people might play in bars for American quarters.

Mr. Alcorn did, and set it up in a local tavern. Soon, though, it broke down.

What went wrong? When Alcorn looked, the answer was clear. Nothing. Players couldn't stop. They had poured in quarters until the machine jammed.

Alcorn had invented ...

Pong.

Pong was one of the worlds first video game to reach mainstream audiences, it has received a cult status and is still played worldwide in many different forms ranging from the original Home Pong console to computer emulators to new versions on the ios platform.

From its beginning the video games industry has only grown in fact since 2005, the industry has grown eight times faster than the US economy. In 2011, the American video game industry says it Recorded $25 billion in sales.
This has led for times to change, recently the US declared that the athlete visa applicable to athletes entering the US to participate in a competition, should also apply to people entering the US for a video game competition, this means that competitors from foreign countries can come in and dominate any American competition. It also shows the beginning of video games as a recognized sport. It also allows the countries competitive scene to expand rapidly.
Call me a optimist but in the future I see an American video game culture similar to that of south korea (the nice one) who make a game called Starcraft a national televised sport who has a massive video game culture in basically all games that come onto the market.

People tend to think of video games a small group of people are misguided and ill informed, it rising form of new media that receives a lot of bad press from the old guard of television and newspapers that are losing ground to newer forms of entertainment.

Links to really interesting article:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/0318/Video-game-nation-Why-so-many-play

Poem about a girl (Poem #2)

This is a poem I wrote about a girl its probably the best poem I've ever written.
I spent a long time on it & I think it is pretty good (even though she deserves better) the Poem is currently censored with her name where the brackets saying (Girls name) should be.
Also I have done the same in not disclosing whether her hair is dyed or natural colour & also what colour it is. Hope you enjoy it none the less. :)

Poem about boredom (Poem #1)

A Poem I wrote because I was bored:

How the church declares saints through Canonization.

Canonization is the process in the catholic church where a person is declared a saint it is a 4 step process that works somewhat like this.

1. -Servant Of God- The person is question is declared a "servant of god" this is a rigorous process that can only begin at least 5 years after the person has died it involves research into their lives/writings a complete biography being published and exhumation of their body to check for any discrepancies.

2.- Veneration- Then a person after being declared a servant of god can be declared "Venerable/Heroic in Virtue" this is where the person in question has shown heroic virtues. This means the person has shown the virtues of faith, hope and charity, and the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, to a heroic degree. even still at this point the church makes no statement as to whether the person in question has made an assertion into heaven.

3.- Beatification-  The person then goes though the process of becoming "Blessed" this is where either the person gave their life voluntarily for the faith and/or in an act of heroic charity for others, or that the person had performed at least one miracle in their time. While this definition of a "miracle" can (and probably had been) exploited it is meant to show that the person has experienced the true vision of god thus god has responded to his/her prayers by performing act that cannot be explained through natural methods.

4.- Saint- "saint" the ultimate honour the church can bestow this has to include two more miracles after that of beatification and after the persons death, it shows a complete certainty of the church that the saint enjoys the Beatific Vision. A feast day is assigned to the saint and churches may be built in their honour also the faithful may freely and without restriction celebrate and honour the saint.

The order can be shown by this:

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonized
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_of_God

Comic #2

I call this one Dawn of the Lez, it is a symbol of all the luck I have with women!

Part2 No Sleep For Me (The Russian Sleepy Experiment)

Part 2

10:15am till 11:30am Watch you tube videos.

11:30am till 12:01pm Edit a comic then become overwhelmed by sleepiness.

12:01pm till 12:15pm Collapse on sofa in heap.

 12:15pm till 4:30pm Sleep on sofa experiment comes to a end at this point. (I managed to stay awake for 22 hours)

4:30pm till 5:00pm usual waking up routine

5:00pm till 5:30pm draw this to a close by finishing to write about it then posting it to my blog.

Conclusion: we do need sleep as I'm felling pretty darn cranky without having proper amounts of it.