What if
I’m a software engineer. My passion / profession is to understand problems and turn them into solutions whereby a portion of the solution is solved by the use of technology, being a computer. The solutions should have a positive beneficial impact on society as a whole and make our lives better. This means that I analyse the real world, break it down into finite elements that then orchestrate the operation of a physical device. That has got me thinking about well everything that we are a part of.
Disclaimers
Names / logos can be trademarks of their respective owners. Please review their website for details. I am independent from the organisations mentioned and am in no way writing for or endorsed by them. The information presented in this article is written according to my own understanding, there could be inaccuracies, so please do undertake your own research. The featured image is my copyright, please don’t use without my permission. Illustrations drawn by me in Inkscape, icons credited.
Mathematics
I’m surprisingly not mathematical. I struggle with equations, but rather rely on others to solve them and provide something I can then translate into computer code (a program). However, I see a similarity. A programming language, the syntax is the human readable representation of the actual instructions that orchestrate the physical electrical mechanics of the processing unit at the heart of a computational machine, is to me similar to mathematical symbology. That mathematical symbology represents and describes our current understanding of how the physical universe works. Because a programming language already describes how a physical electromechanical device works.
That mathematics as a whole is an incomplete overlay by which we understand the laws of physics:
Because I understand that we don’t understand everything.
Us
We are a part of the universe. We are formed with components of the universe. We have sensors that feed into our minds, neural nets, that attempt to understand the universe. That then results in our understanding as an output from the sensory input. We then communicate what we have deduced with others, other neural nets doing the same thing. That feeds into their processing (thoughts) about the same thing. It adds to their sensory input so that they have more upon which to deduce a plausible understanding:
Note: Icons from FontAwsome 7.1.0 free – (fontawesome.com/license/free) – Creative Commons – CC BY 4.0 License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).
That we then apply that to our scientific knowledge base that over time grows. That at any time new sensory data can be processed to alter and adjust that knowledge when verified by collective replication of the same processing. To me that being the Scientific Method.
Being a part of the universe means that we are connected to it. We are a part of its functionality. What we do has a physical impact on its behaviour, however small that may seem to be. That because of this connection then there is understanding and therefore a degree of certainty that our interpretations are accurate. A means of the universe understanding itself.
What if
Given that AI, another physical form of neural net, is plausibly more resilient to the laws of nature and its effect of determining a lifespan for any given biological mind. Then will it facilitate and accelerate to a greater extent our understanding of the universe because of its inherent physical stability? Rather than relying on replacement biological minds to form and learn what is already known.
Given that we are a part of the same universe that we exist in, then we will in time understand it as we understand ourselves. That just as DNA provides a physical sequence, a ‘program’, that is then processed to create us, that mathematics will one day do the same thing and allow us to create from the elemental structures upwards means of extending our society further and for longer?
What if we didn’t question ourselves and as a consequence we never learned?
You
This is all pure thought from my mind. What do you think please?
- What if – 16th February 2026
- New years resolutions – 16th January 2026
- Gource – 16th December 2025
