What is mathematics, and where did it come from? At first glance, mathematics seems to have a primary and fundamental existence, but it is a descriptive aspect of the physical world, be it real or possible, and does not play the role of substance in nature's creations. The magnificence of its equations depends on the whimsicality of the physical world. And the fact that the physical reality is such that with mathematics it lends itself to description perhaps implies that the existence of such a complex self-organizing world, capable of giving birth to intelligent beings, could not be otherwise: such a world always contains within the possibility of describing itself.
