Is math truly a universal language?

[huginn]

question about math as an universal language

Hi
I apologize if this is in the wrong forum, my first time here
I have some interest in thing like SETI and was curious about mathematics, as a universal language to communicate with ET, using prime numbers and such

As math is based on human logic,definitions and assumptions Is this truly a statement I can blindly accept ?
Can alien intelligence have a type of math or logic that is so different we can't understand it?
Part of why i am curious about this is I seen in SCI-fI is that chemistry is the one true universal language because of the periodic table
Are there books or websites that talk about this in layman terms?

 

[Mark44]

question about math as an universal language

Hi
I apologize if this is in the wrong forum, my first time here
I have some interest in thing like SETI and was curious about mathematics, as a universal language to communicate with ET, using prime numbers and such

As math is based on human logic,definitions and assumptions Is this truly a statement I can blindly accept ?
Can alien intelligence have a type of math or logic that is so different we can't understand it?
Part of why i am curious about this is I seen in SCI-fI is that chemistry is the one true universal language because of the periodic table
Are there books or websites that talk about this in layman terms?

I'm not sure that mathematics is a universal language. Even for such a simple equation as $1 + 2 = 3$, an alien intelligence would need to know what the symbols 1, 2, 3, +, and = mean.

An image might be more understandable, such as this one:

 

[jk_er_gamma]

There is another problem as well. There are things we would like to express in language that are not expressed well in normal math, such as possibility and causality. Because of the "Law of the Excluded Middle" in Math (Not False=True), some math statements work counterintuitively. For example, I can say "If I hit this box, it will stay exactly where it is, with no change of momentum," and then I don't hit the box. Action-Reaction indicates that this statement is false. In mathematical logic, since I didn't hit the box, the statement has no counterexample, so it's not false, and not false=true.
Another semantic distinction missing from mathematics is tense. Modal Logic is an already established extension of standard mathematical logic which adds words for tense and possibility. This brings it closer to conveniently phrasing things we would like to say with sentences, but another barrier is to precisely phrase things like "I," "to hit," and "this box," approximations which are well-understood and usually unchallenged in language for the sake of brevity.
There's lots of Buddhist thinking about the imprecise nature of language, and even about in-between truth values, some of which are paralleled by rigorous mathematics schools.