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Our Mathematical Universe?

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Paper breakdownThe authors' claims, conditions and measurements, as JSON Signed receiptProof this review has not been altered
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Jeremy Butterfield

History and Philosophy of Physics · Submitted 17 Jun 2014

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim This version combines those three articles, and adds some other material, in particular a brief defence of quidditism about properties.

how it is stated · asserted 1.00 read the record →

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arXiv ID1406.4348 (version 1)
Pith IDPJPI3XR2, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review
CitationJeremy Butterfield. "Our Mathematical Universe?." arXiv:1406.4348 (2014). https://pith.science/paper/PJPI3XR2
Claim paper

The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

Open the compiled record

Compiled by classifier-1.13-20260917 via OpenRouter, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 4,777 input tokens, $0.0002 reported.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.02 · states limitation 0.32 · human participants 0.04 · controlled comparison 0.01 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.02 · compares with prior results 0.03 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v1. Results and the main claim are underlined; .

This is a discussion of some themes in Max Tegmark's recent book, Our Mathematical Universe. It was written as a review for Plus Magazine, the online magazine of the UK's national mathematics education and outreach project, the Mathematics Millennium Project. Since some of the discussion (about symmetry breaking, and Pythagoreanism in the philosophy of mathematics) went beyond reviewing Tegmark's book, the material was divided into three online articles. This version combines those three articles, and adds some other material, in particular a brief defence of quidditism about properties. It also adds some references, to other Plus articles as well as academic articles. But it retains the informal style of Plus.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#sentencerolethe authors' own workstates the main conclusionstrength
s0 This is a discussion of some themes in Max Tegmark's recent book, Our Mathematical Universe. contribution 0.56 0.18 0.03 asserted 1.00
s1 It was written as a review for Plus Magazine, the online magazine of the UK's national mathematics education and outreach project, the Mathematics Millennium Project. background 0.95 0.42 0.02 asserted 1.00
s2 Since some of the discussion (about symmetry breaking, and Pythagoreanism in the philosophy of mathematics) went beyond reviewing Tegmark's book, the material was divided into three online articles. background 0.80 0.53 0.02 asserted 1.00
s3 This version combines those three articles, and adds some other material, in particular a brief defence of quidditism about properties. contribution 0.96 0.68 0.04 asserted 1.00
s4 It also adds some references, to other Plus articles as well as academic articles. contribution 0.93 0.68 0.02 asserted 1.00
s5 But it retains the informal style of Plus. limitation 0.53 0.37 0.02 asserted 1.00

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: review 0.58 · evidence from literature 0.65.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read
  • arXiv listing abstract v1
not examined
  • full text
  • figures and tables
  • references and citing sentences
  • relations to other papers
levels run
  • P abstract
not run
  • S sections
  • T body sentences
  • C citations
  • R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper
Original abstract

This is a discussion of some themes in Max Tegmark's recent book, Our Mathematical Universe. It was written as a review for Plus Magazine, the online magazine of the UK's national mathematics education and outreach project, the Mathematics Millennium Project. Since some of the discussion (about symmetry breaking, and Pythagoreanism in the philosophy of mathematics) went beyond reviewing Tegmark's book, the material was divided into three online articles. This version combines those three articles, and adds some other material, in particular a brief defence of quidditism about properties. It also adds some references, to other Plus articles as well as academic articles. But it retains the informal style of Plus.

Human review

How Pith checks papers → · Full audit of this paper →

How the literature uses it

1 arXiv paper cite this in 1 sentence

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Discussion

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