On Jul 31, 1:19 pm, "Stephen P. King" <stephe...@charter.net> wrote:
> > Hi Craig, > Umm, what would be the point of coming up with yet another > representation system for quantities? We already established that a > description is not its referent even though for every referent there is > at least one description and for every description there is at least one > referent. Zero, 0, null, the empty set is an absence of sorts; a > placeholder. So in that sense it is a referent and just as space is 'the > place where referents could be but are not', so too is 0. Right. I like that. My point in the alt numeracy idea is to bring out the true a-signifying potential of quantity - to take generic mechanism to it's reductio ad absurdum and reveal the implicit sentimentality of arithmetic which is hidden in base-10 rhyming. If it looked like this instead: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A-Z Every name in every phonebook in India Every word in every language various random squiggles, etc then we could truly expunge all remnants of beauty or symmetry in arithmetic and reveal itself in pure abstraction and marvel at how utterly devoid of usefulness that makes it. That way we could recover our orientation to the genuine by admitting that what we get out of arithmetic is a happy feeling of satisfaction - dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. Our 1p experience of a human brain in communion with the 1p sense of those categories of molecules are the primitives of arithmetic. Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
