Patterns of or patterns in

While considering the possibility of different degrees of nothingness Robert Lawrence Kuhn suggested that one might have no physical reality but still have a Platonic world of mathematical entities existing, things like numbers, equations, shapes, etc. (Closer to Truth, PBS, 24 May 2016) If mathematics is simply the science of patterns this doesn't seem likely. (Resnik, Mathematics as a Science of Patterns, OUP, 1997) You need to have something physical that you can then have patterns of. Patterns don't exist if the underlying fabric doesn't exist. (Synthetic or extrapolated patterns need not exist in the real world however.  See my blog of 18 Feb. 2016 for examples.)