Metaphors, mathematics & the imagination
Roger Antonsen, logikkprofessor på UiO
His vision is to communicate science differently, to inspire creative thinking, and to remove the common misconceptions about mathematics and computer science.
Understanding has to do with the ability to change your perspective
Mathematics has to do with patterns: finding patterns, connections, structures, regularities, rules that govern what we see; and then representing these patterns with a language; making assumptions and doing cool stuff
We make up languages for what we need to understand if there is no language already to describe it; representations of patterns
Leibniz; invented a language for patterns in nature
Playing with metaphors
Playing with perspectives and analogies
Telling one story in different ways
Making several narratives
All of these things make understanding possible
And is fundamental for human understanding
View the structure from the inside to see the essence
We use our imagination; this is a requirement to change your perspective
We use our imagination to change our perspective every day; it’s called empathy!
Empathy requires imagination, and that is how we obtain understanding
playing games with numbers!