Mathematics is the study of objective truth in a universe that has certain rules. How could knowing the universe in all its glory be boring? Wish they taught this rather than calculation at school. It's very uninspiring to not realize this and do math.<p>In fact, natural numbers are the basis for almost all of mathematics. And natural numbers are a manifestation of counting. Information theoretically, to count, one needs two dimensions (or degrees of freedom.) Space for storage of the number. And time to increment the storage medium, again and again, at different points. You could use two dimensions of space instead, and you'd just draw two orthogonal lines..and say the area inside the rectangle is the product.<p>So if counting is fundamentally related to the relationship between two dimensions, then so is addition since addition is repeated/recursive counting. And multiplication is repeated/recursive addition.<p>Once you realize this, physics seems less fundamental than mathematics, when it comes to understanding the universe.<p>Multiplication and addition are related in the way that f(x) and repeat(f(x), y) are related. They distribute over eachother and have certain properties.<p>See: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(mathematics)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(mathematics)</a><p>So..the primes, the chaotic relationship between the modularity of addition over multiplication and the modularity of multiplication over addition, is due to the relationship between our universe's dimensions.<p>Want to study the universe at the most raw level? Mathematics. Want to study it a little higher? Physics. Want to study it at a higher level..maybe closer to the phaneron? Biology/neurochemistry.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaneron" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaneron</a><p>Want to study it at the thinking level? Zen buddhism.<p>Choose your pick. The causal chain of human to universe doesn't discriminate. The whole chain could be the "real" reality. Pick your choice. It's all beautiful. It's all mystifying and enigmatic. Just do it.