Tired of Platonists

More point-missing by Platonists:

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In his new book, Science After Babel, David Berlinski expands on his explanation of the development and significance of algorithms, a subject he first examined in The Advent of the Algorithm. Berlinski writes, “The calculus and the rich body of mathematical analysis to which it gave rise made modern science possible, but it was the algorithm that made possible the modern world. The algorithm has come to occupy a central place in our imagination. It is the second great scientific idea of the West [after calculus].”

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Algorithms in digital software started with Hollerith in 1890, but we’ve been building mechanical and fluidic and paper PREDICTIVE ALGORITHMS for a thousand years. Long before calculus, long before written math.

A clock is a predictive algorithm. Astronomical clocks like the Ridhwan, and geometrical computers like an Astrolabe were fancy predictive algorithms. The Lukyanov was a fluidic predictive computer. The aircraft balance predictor was a purely mechanical predictive computer.

A printed table like an almanac is a predictive algorithm, and most almanacs included formulas that you could use for your own extrapolations.

The full-fledged analog computers were invented after calculus, and they SUBSTITUTED FOR CALCULUS, quickly solving problems that you COULDN’T SOLVE WITH EQUATIONS.

Physical mechanisms, whether invented by God or by humans, are always better than math.

Math is not Nature. Math was not invented by Nature. Math is just a language, and it’s not even a natural language. It’s an arbitrary artificial language like Esperanto, and like all artificial languages it’s crude and unexpressive. Digital computers solve problems by brute wasteful force, mobilizing a billion cointossers to guess at the answer and picking the answer that happens to compare best with Nature.