Computers’ inability to find physical laws is a clue to math’s relationship to reality
For some people, all math problems are difficult.
But for computer scientists, most math problems are easy. The computer does all the work.
Sometimes, though, problems come along that even computers can’t handle. Even the most powerful supercomputers on the planet can gag on certain types of mathematical puzzles. Computer scientists have a special term to describe such problems. They’re called “hard.”
Physicists, of course, know all about hard problems, such as figuring out the laws of nature. That task is a bit different, though. Instead of solving an equation, it’s finding an equation — figuring out what formula accurately describes past and future experimental observations. You know, dropping cannonballs off of buildings, or watching planets amble through the skies, and using that data to compose an equation to predict how all matter moves when subjected to forces. Try giving that problem to a computer.