Is there a purpose of one's life? If so, does the purpose vary from person to person, or is there a single purpose shared by all of human kind? Or is life perhaps just a Darwinian accident without any purpose whatsoever?
While you ponder over these questions with profound implications, let us take a detour. Our brief journey starts in the realm of theoretical particle physics, takes us along into the world of mathematics, and back again to the questions you are pondering over somewhere at the back or your minds. So lets begin, shall we?
The force of gravity is something we are all familiar with. It is the force that pulls us towards the center of the Earth, and enables the Earth to maintain its orbit around the Sun. The same orbit that determines the journey of our planet around the Sun can also be perceived as something that connects the Earth and the Sun. Through the force of gravity, the two objects have been bound to each other in a connection that has a life time in billons of years.
It is a hypothesis that a particle called the Graviton is responsible for the force of gravity i.e. the Graviton is a force carrying particle for the force of gravity. Another hypothesis that comes from String theory postulates that there may exist more than the three dimensions of space that we can perceive in our everyday life. A beautiful conjecture connects these hypotheses by stating that Gravitons may possess the capability to travel between our 3-dimensional space, and the space of higher dimensions. The leakage of Gravitons from 3-space to higher dimensions is the reason why gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces.
Mathematics deals with abstractions. These abstractions have no physical existence; it is as if the abstractions reside in a separate dimension. Yet, it is these abstractions that are applied to numerous phenomena in the physical world, resulting in accurate calculations that support modern technology. Moreover, these abstractions also serve to find common grounds between disparate sciences. In a way, mathematical abstractions are like Gravitons; they can move freely between the world of abstractions, and the physical world (perhaps with slight differences in manifestation), creating connections.
In Mysticism and Logic, Bertrand Russell wrote:
"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty -- a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show."
Does this not stand true for the inner beauty of a human being as well? Perhaps the very nature of mathematics tells us something about the purpose of our lives?
