Is math real? The answer has major practical and philosophical implications

You are surrounded by abstract mathematics even if you do not know it. In fact, math may be the main reason why you, me, and a lot of other folks in the modern world are alive and functioning. The device you are reading these words on could only be fabricated because of sophisticated equations associated with quantum mechanics. Most of the food and the other products you buy made it to your store thanks to the subtle mathematics spinning around supply chain dynamics. So yes, you are surrounded by the real-world consequences of mathematics, however abstract they are. But beneath that important fact lies a deeper and more important question.Is that mathematics real?Are the truths embodied in all that math real, in and of themselves? Is mathematics somehow inscribed into the fabric of reality, the very thoughts of God? (This can be a metaphor or not, depending on your inclination.) On the other hand, maybe math is just something we invent. Maybe it is a language like any other — one that...