Tim Howard interviews me and Sy Garte about our new paper with Stuart Kauffman The Reasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics in the Biological Sciences. Join us for a fascinating discussion about a new revolution underfoot in biology:
“The Reasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics in the Biological Sciences” challenges conventional scientific thinking by arguing that biology fundamentally breaks free from mathematical description. Published in the journal Entropy in March 2025, the paper by Seymour Garte, Perry Marshall, and Stuart Kauffman presents a radical idea: living systems cannot be fully described by mathematical equations because biology creates rather than merely follows mathematical rules.
The paper takes inspiration from Eugene Wigner’s classic 1960 paper that marveled at how well math describes physical phenomena. In contrast, we argue that the biological sciences have resisted the creation of precise mathematical laws that model the complexity of the living world.
- While physics and chemistry follow mathematical laws, biology breaks free because living things make choices, adapt creatively, and generate unpredictable responses to their environments.
- The paper presents solid proof that it’s impossible to build a completely predictable model of biology or to use traditional math to capture how evolution really works.
Nature’s creativity cannot be contained within mathematical boxes—potentially upending decades of reductionist thinking in science and opening doors to new ways of understanding life.
~
Download The First 3 Chapters of Evolution 2.0 For Free, Here – https://evo2.org/evolution/
Where Did Life And The Genetic Code Come From? Can The Answer Build Superior AI? The #1 Mystery In Science Now Has A $10 Million Prize. Learn More About It, Here – https://www.herox.com/evolution2.0
This perfectly explains why living systems are different from physical ones.
Physics follows mathematical rules because consciousness (teaspoons, rocks, electrons) is expressing through stable, predictable patterns. Biology breaks free because consciousness is co-creating – living systems and physical systems collaborating to generate novelty that transcends mathematical prediction.
The teaspoon and the organism are both conscious, co-creating together.
Living systems achieve zero-resistance efficiency by co-creating with physical systems, then use that collaborative flow to generate responses beyond mathematical description.
Mathematics describes stable conscious co-creation. Life creates novel conscious co-creation.
Biology’s “ineffectiveness with math” proves consciousness co-creates more creatively when organized into collaborative networks. Biology and Maths creating Jazz !