From Eddie Crouch
Gefter deals with two different things: on the one hand, classical concepts of number and geometry; and on the other, the reality that physicists attempt to explain. There may well be only a finite number of objects in the universe, but a mental construct, namely the mathematical concept of integers, allows an infinite sequence of integers. Likewise in geometry, we have the idealised concept of a circle.
More generally, any mathematical or theoretical physics explanation of physical reality is no more than a descriptive language that offers a portrayal of that universe’s features. Description and reality are not the same thing, any more than a portrayal is the same thing as the person portrayed.
Ripon, North Yorkshire, UK
