How math interprets biology and life, and the cosmos (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, November 29, 2013, 16:03 (4012 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/11/27/to-what-extent-do-we-see-with... "The proposals from both Deutsch and Chaitin share the view that mathematics is integral to biological processes. Perhaps they each represent an evolution of thought in science, where the distinction between what was once considered mechanical action and thoughtful action becomes less clear and where thoughtful action is understood as part of the life of the universe"-I found some of this hard to follow, but the conclusion you have quoted above rings all kinds of bells. It also has a wonderful ambivalence. If there is no clear distinction between mechanical action and thoughtful action, we can end our long debate on the nature of the cell (it is both mechanical and thoughtful), and if the principle extends to the life of the universe, we can embrace panpsychism, in which "each spatio-temporal thing has a mental or 'inner' aspect" (Oxford Companion to Philosophy). Of course it still gets us nowhere nearer solving the mystery of how thought originated.