Suppose a scientist cooks up a perfectly consistent logical theory of how the universe might work, but then discovers that it doesn’t match the experimental evidence of our own universe. The hypothetical theory is booted out and is no longer of interest to the world of science. If a biologist starts writing papers about a hypothetical beast that potentially could exist, like a unicorn, but doesn’t actually walk this Earth, no one is going to be interested unless it casts some light on the animals that do exist. By contrast, in mathematics such new worlds and beasts are celebrated and embraced.
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