Are space ships in game of life invented or discovered? I've come to believe that's ultimately exactly the same question.
We're talking about rich structures that emerge from simple rule sets. That's really all there is to mathematics.
We started from structures that provide helpful abstractions for things in real life, which might lead some to believe that mathematics points to some hidden reality behind things, but that's ultimately just spiritual thinking in rational sounding clothing.
It is sometimes said that it is surprising that nature follows laws that are mathematical, but that's the wrong way around. Mathematics just provides helpful abstractions that we can apply to whatever we like. Saying nature is mathematical is just saying that nature is consistent in the laws it follows.
We're talking about rich structures that emerge from simple rule sets. That's really all there is to mathematics.
We started from structures that provide helpful abstractions for things in real life, which might lead some to believe that mathematics points to some hidden reality behind things, but that's ultimately just spiritual thinking in rational sounding clothing.
It is sometimes said that it is surprising that nature follows laws that are mathematical, but that's the wrong way around. Mathematics just provides helpful abstractions that we can apply to whatever we like. Saying nature is mathematical is just saying that nature is consistent in the laws it follows.