Trick or Truth?

The prize-winning essays in this book address the fascinating but sometimes uncomfortable relationship between physics and mathematics. Is mathematics merely another natural science? Or is it the result of human creativity? Does physics simply wear mathematics like a costume, or is math the lifeblood of physical reality?

The nineteen wide-ranging, highly imaginative and often entertaining essays are enhanced versions of the prize-winning entries to the FQXi essay competition “Trick or Truth”, which attracted over 200 submissions.

The Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality, but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Children of the Cosmos
• Mathematics Is Physics
• My God, It’s Full of Clones: Living in a Mathematical Universe
• Let’s Consider Two Spherical Chickens
• The Raven and the Writing Desk
• The Deeper Roles of Mathematics in Physical Laws
• How Mathematics Meets the World
• Mathematics: Intuition’s Consistency Check
• How Not to Factor a Miracle
• The Language of Nature
• Demystifying the Applicability of Mathematics
• Why Mathematics Works so Well
• Genesis of a Pythagorean Universe
• Beyond Math
• The Descent of Math
• The Ultimate Tactics of Self-referential Systems
• Cognitive Science and the Connection Between Physics and Mathematics
• A Universe from Universality
• And the Math Will Set You Free
• Appendix List of Winners