If you accept the probability that our Cosmos is designed and fine-tuned (not just for life but to allow even atoms and molecules and more complex structures like stars and planets to exist), then I guess your choice is between pure chance (the Mother Hypothesis of Nature and/or Multiverse Hypothesis) and a designer. If it is the latter, then your choice is between the supernatural (the God hypothesis) and the natural (the simulation hypothesis). What would Occam’s Razor suggest? What role can mathematics play?
Actually, there is an interesting variation of the simulation hypothesis. It is the Hypothesis of the Mind or the Hypothesis of the Dream. You know how absolutely realistic your dreams can be or the images that your mind can conjure up. Of course, those dreams and those images are also a form of virtual reality. Are we the product of someone’s dream world?
Aside from the sheer probability that we’re VR beings in a computer simulated landscape, the next best or second best reason to take the simulation hypothesis seriously is math.
The language of our Cosmos is written in mathematics so our reality is also a mathematical reality. The reality of computer games is also a mathematical reality. Any “what if” research simulation is a mathematical reality. Thus, our reality could be like a Cosmos, simulated like a computer game or a “what if” research scenario.
To begin with, consider that all of the laws, principles, and relationships of physics are expressible in the language of mathematics and mathematical equations. The same largely applies to chemistry and also to the earth and space sciences (astronomy/cosmology, meteorology, geology/geophysics, and physical oceanography). The natural world and the biological sciences are also steeped in mathematics.
Why do we get fractals in nature like in some leaves, snowflakes, clouds, lightning, coastlines, broccoli, etc?
Pi occurs quite apart from the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter in all sorts of ways that have nothing to do with circles.
Why do we get meaningful mathematical ratios ranging from planetary rotations and revolutions to music (octaves, fourths, fifths, etc.)
Why is the golden ratio so prevalent and pleasing (on the human body and especially on the human face) and also often arises in nature, from spiral galaxies, cabbage cross-sections to nautilus shells?
Why is symmetry found in nature?
Why are the Fibonacci Numbers (the Fibonacci Sequence being 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc.) so overrepresented in the nature of cauliflower, pineapples, pineapples, sunflowers, flower petals (especially daisy petals) to match the arrangement of leaves on a stem?
Why is the cosmological constant set to one part in 10 to the 120th power?
But above all, why is the Cosmos dominated and described by mathematical equations (not of our creation) and relationships? For example, mathematics is very useful for making predictions.
Predictions that are a bit out of the ordinary have included the evolutionary stages of our Sun as it nears the end of its life; the existence of the planet Neptune (confirmed); the Higgs boson (confirmed); antimatter (confirmed); neutrinos (confirmed); Black holes (confirmed); and dark matter (yet to be confirmed).
Predictions on a more routine level include eclipses; conjunctions; lunar and celestial occultations; and whether or not a rogue asteroid will hit Earth, and if so, when.
Finally, why are mathematical equations so well designed that in almost all cases the coefficients and exponents are either low value integers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) or simple fractions (1/4, 1/3, 1/2). That defies the odds. I see no other logical possibility than mathematical equations dealing with the actual laws, principles, and relationships of physics, etc. they have been well thought out and designed to be as simple as possible. The question is, designed by whom?
