Brent Meeker writes: > I'm uncertain whether "instantiated by abstract mathematical patterns" means > that the patterns are being physically realized by a process in time (as in > the > sci-fi above) or by the physical existence of the patterns in some static > form > (e.g. written pieces of paper) or just by the Platonic "existence" of the > patterns within some mathematic/logic system.
I'd be curious to know whether you think that Platonic existence could include a notion of time. Can you imagine a process, something that involves the flow of time, existing Platonically? Or would you restrict Platonic existence to things like integers and triangles, which seemingly don't involve anything like time? How about the case of mathematical proofs? Could an entire proof exist Platonically? A proof has a sort of time-like flow to it, causal dependency of later steps on earlier ones. It seems to be an interesting intermediate case. My tentative opinion is that it does make sense to ascribe Platonic existence to such things but I am interested to hear other people's thoughts. Hal Finney