Why is Mathematics Limited? The Answer lies in Death and Math, itself.

Yesterday I was talking to my father about how I believe in reincarnation after death. He asked me "Son, you are pursuing research in mathematical science. Why do you believe in such weird esoteric concepts?"

My inner voice spoke through me to him "I have acquired knowledge in mathematics and science well enough to know the limitations of the same".?

He asked me "Why are you pursuing research, then?". I replied back to him "Because every moment I do research, I know the limitations of mathematics and science, to which I have devoted myself for so many years. And, I ask myself 'What's beyond?' ".?

After a bit of silence, we changed it to a different topic.

My relationship with mathematics

Ramanujan inspired me to fall in love with mathematics. I was in deep love with mathematics. Ramanujan's devotion to mathematics is the reason why I have decided to pursue my research career in mathematical science. The process of devoting oneself to discovering something new is so surreal. I have moved far away from pure mathematics, but the essence of research remains invariant.?

I have spent countless hours being morose about how I will not be able to do mathematics after my death.?

I used to think that mathematics has the answer to everything,?to death, and to birth, to every unknown in the universe. Probably, that is the reason, why I was so much devoted to it. I was finding the answers to truth in mathematics. For a long time, I thought that prime numbers make the foundation of the universe. I was wrong.?

Today, mathematics is just a beautiful instrument for me, I am grateful to have been trained in it.?

Why just an instrument?

I have been greatly questioned by the following clip from the film The Oxford Murders - "Can we know the truth?". It led me into questioning my beliefs.

The main takeaway from this clip is that I have realized that mathematics and science are mere inventions of the human mind to find patterns in the universe. I have experimentally verified it every single time, I am doing math and research. This is true.?

Mathematics and science are organized studies of patterns in the universe. While, death, birth, accidents, cancer, and so many events that happen by mere chance have no patterns. Hence, mathematics, and science fail to explain them.

We invented mathematics to answer questions related to the patterns we observe. We started to quantify the patterns with scientific and mathematical instruments and technology.?

Why patterns?

Because, without patterns, we are fearful about our existence, about our experiences. We want comfort in the security of predictions and patterns, math and science give us.?

We are afraid of the dark because we do not know the patterns of what will happen in the darkness. We are afraid of the mere presence of chance. That's the way of our mind. Our minds seek patterns for our safety and our security.

Thus, mathematics and science were invented to understand patterns. Existence is full of patterns. Mathematics just explains what science can measure.?

Remember, existence is full of patterns, but not only made of patterns.

An instrument for what?

The goal of the mind is to find patterns. That's it. Mathematics is rather one of the mind's best instruments to understand the patterns of nature.?

The very fact of the evolution of Artificial Neural Networks is a piece of evidence to it. The whole goal of modern machine learning and deep learning is to train the model using a huge amount of data, and the machine will learn automatically from learning from the data, and from finding the patterns in the data.?

The human mind is a technology just to find patterns in the data we perceive through our five senses. Another instrument of the mind can be music, where the mind creates patterns and continuously uses our body to stay in rhythm and patterns while playing.?

As far as I can perceive math and music are two important paths of exercising the full capacities of our minds - the capacity to find patterns.

For me, mathematics is now the best instrument to enhance the abilities of my mind, so that I can keep sharpening this beautiful gift of nature to me, as a way to perceive everything around me in a better way.

Mathematics proves math is limited

The answer lies in G?del's incompleteness theorem.

In 1931, the Austrian logician Kurt G?del published his incompleteness theorem, a result widely considered one of the greatest intellectual achievements of modern times. The theorem states that in any reasonable mathematical system, there will always be true statements that cannot be proved.

Thus, a mathematically efficient system cannot prove things, that is true. In other words, you can see something happening (which means it is true), and will never be able to explain it. You will know that it just happens. You will never know why.

That is the limitation of our minds.

That is the limitation of mathematics.

Is death one such true event, that we will never be able to explain with our math?

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