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A comment on What Happens When Clergy Take Psilocybin. Parent comment

Re:What Happens When Clergy Take Psilocybin by josephg on Tuesday June 17, 2025 @06:33PM (#44304705)
If you crushed all the atoms in the universe into dust, would the number 2 also be destroyed in the process? I don't know if the mathematical idea of 2 exists in the physical world at all. I don’t know if that’s even a well formed question.

Obviously humans perceive 2-ness. And if you crushed all our minds to dust, nobody would remember 2. But would that really destroy the number? If an alien civilisation in another universe counted things, I think it might be the very same number 2 that they use to count.

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Re:What Happens When Clergy Take Psilocybin by SamPatt on Wednesday June 18, 2025 @08:25AM (#44309264)
I'm not a Platonist.
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Re:What Happens When Clergy Take Psilocybin by josephg on Wednesday June 18, 2025 @06:16PM (#44313740)
Do you think numbers were invented or discovered?

Numbers show up in a lot of different cultures. If we all independently reinvented / rediscovered the same thing, that’s interesting - don’t you think?

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Re:What Happens When Clergy Take Psilocybin by SamPatt on Thursday June 19, 2025 @09:23AM (#44318475)
Does convergent evolution prove that a structure like an eyeball exists in some abstract realm, or does it mean there's a process which - given a similar environment - will produce that structure over time?

It's not hard to see why the same useful inventions emerged in similar environments.

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