socialsciencescholar had a blog post about the existence of numbers.

I’m surprised people believe numbers exist beyond just human summarizations.

I read this other blog, plato’s heaven, and I want to answer all these questions 1 by 1. 

“What is maths? Nominalists say that its like a game of checkers. There are pieces (numbers) and there are rules (methods of calculation) but there is no meaning.” says this blog

Q1 “ If maths was just a made up game, then why does it have such useful applications in the real world?”

A1: because it’s a series of rules we’ve evolved to be useful. If a particular mathematical theory wasn’t useful, we wouldn’t use it.

Q2 “ And why does each culture end up following the same rules?”

A2:  because they are useful in all cultures. Common physics, common patterns we all share.

Q3 “But what would happen if there were no people in the world, and no other intelligent life which could count? Would numbers still exist?”

A3:  ”Numbers” by the definition “occurrence summarizations”, no they would not exist, because nothing is summarizing occurrences.

Q4 “ if all red things in the world were destroyed, would the colour red still exist?”

A4: is the “thing” the bit of information being computed through the brain? Because our brain can internally send signals of red. A person who turns blind is aware that blue exist and can still see blue if their brain internally generates it and supplies it to the senses (dreams). That internal message is a “thing”

Q5 “So it seems that mathematics must exist. But where?”

A5 patterns exist, multiple alike things exist. We summarize their relationship and physical motions with numbers. It’s just centralizing management.

(I’m beginning to see how people have incorrectly solidified their views on reality)