From JOHN MARTIN
In your Comment (8 May) on ‘Big bangs and exploding cakes’, there is the
sentence: ‘The important thing to remember is that any scientific metaphor
provides only a glimpse of the underlying mathematical truth’. I think that
the word ‘mathematical’ should be left out.
High-level mathematical descriptions of reality are just as metaphorical as
the simpler thumbnail sketches, even though their accuracy is often much
better. ‘Underlying truth’ is far more than ‘mathematical’. A map, however
carefully done, is never the same as the countryside it represents. It’s all
there, but it’s not the whole story.
John Martin
King’s College London
