I remember back in undergrad — in my first meta math course (the Godel one) — my prof was finishing up teaching the idea of successors and proved the rather surprising and not-at-all obvious fact that 2 + 2 = 4. Then I realized a thought that I still can’t quite articulate, but goes something like this: isn’t it surprising that the basic rules of inference and math are the same EVERY TIME? It suggests that there is a structure to logic itself.

What maintains that structure? Is it like the characters in Plato’s cave casting shadows on the wall? How is the information in that underlying structure stored, like a big, cosmic, fundamental spreadsheet?

And is conscious necessary for this? If so, it’s interesting and not-at-all an accident that we all agree on what the ‘rules’ or logic are.