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Did abstract mathematics, such as Pythagoras’s theorem, exist before the big bang? (continued)

Richard Swifte
Darmstadt, Germany

I would lump mathematics in a similar category to language, art, music, etc. – inventions of the human mind that are highly relevant and meaningful to our species, but have no reality otherwise. It is amazing that the evolving human brain happened to gain the ability to think up abstract mathematics (going beyond the simple practical ability to count objects), since this has no obvious survival value to our species.

However, what a useful invention mathematics has been, essential to developing scientific theories…