Cognitively, humans seek patterns.
Our brains are too small to take in all the uniqueness of things
all at once. We see reality through a 2mm pinhole, constantly
scanning and building pictures, mostly based upon what we
_expect_ to see. [our memory makes up most of our vision].
That's just how the brain works. That's how our eyes see.
a 2mm hole. We can do a lot with that. But we cant do
everything.
So we build machines that compress or expand reality to fit into
that 2mm hole. Mathematics is part of that process.
We need patterns to comprehend reality.
But what if we saw reality differently? What if our brains were
so large they didn't need to compress reality into patterns so
that we could fit it all in there?
What then? Would we perceive patterns if we didn't need them?
It takes thinking from an alien POV, granted. But we mustn't
ever forget WHO is using these systems and ask WHY do we need
them?
it's not saying it's useless; I'm not saying that at all. But I
_am_ saying we are the producer *and* the ultimate consumer of
the products of our labor and knowledge. WE generate the
purposes. It's nearly impossible to abstract from that but it's
possible.
