Math is the subset of fiction that, for some reason inherent in the human brain and\or the universe, is always invented/re-invented with the exact same essential details across several non-colluding minds.
Mathematical mental artifacts are special stories with incredible mutation-resistent properties, memes which compel their host with astonishing power and insistence to interpret and extract from them the same conclusions and patterns and behaviours that other hosts infected with the same meme did\do, or at least prevent one host from interpreting or concluding the opposite of what most other hosts interpreted\concluded.
That is, Mathematical Reasoning is a distributed mind-consensus 0-communication algorithm, a way for minds (instantiated in brains, silicon chips,spacetime foams,...) to agree on something while never actually explicitly arguing or debating or handshaking in any way. The set of all objects and states Mathematical Reasoning is capable of agreeing on is by definition Mathematics.
Discovering sentient aliens would shed much light on this.
There's a distinction between whether the objects of mathematics are "invented" vs. whether they are subjective. These arent equivalent notions.
It's possible to maintain mathematics is discovered and its objects are subjective. This would be akin to the kantian position, in which mathematics constitues something like the formal structure of subjective experience itself.
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Either way, the options arent "invented subjectivity, vs. discovered platonism
Mathematical mental artifacts are special stories with incredible mutation-resistent properties, memes which compel their host with astonishing power and insistence to interpret and extract from them the same conclusions and patterns and behaviours that other hosts infected with the same meme did\do, or at least prevent one host from interpreting or concluding the opposite of what most other hosts interpreted\concluded.
That is, Mathematical Reasoning is a distributed mind-consensus 0-communication algorithm, a way for minds (instantiated in brains, silicon chips,spacetime foams,...) to agree on something while never actually explicitly arguing or debating or handshaking in any way. The set of all objects and states Mathematical Reasoning is capable of agreeing on is by definition Mathematics.
Discovering sentient aliens would shed much light on this.