Re: deprogramming language
Face Inthecrowd (facethecrowd@hotmail.com)
Tue, 26 Oct 1999 21:23:23 -0400 (EDT)
Zero was invented by a Persian man with a rather scary last name starting
with Z. The introduction of zero revolutionized the way people look at
mathematics. How did they do mathematics before? I guess they just
considered zero to be the space between two rows of beads on an abacus or if
they did the computations in their head, added 2 to get from 1 to -1. I
really don't know, maybe Steven Gabriel does. I'm interested in what they
did before zero also.
>From: erespess@inil.com
>Reply-To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
>To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
>Subject: Re: deprogramming language
>Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:47:05 -0400
>
> >The numbers "5" and "8" permit a splendid range of complicated equations
> >that are infinitely more complex than presence vs. absence, but you
> >can't get the numbers to begin with if you don't invoke the principal
> >of presence vs. absence.
>
>So, how did math work before the concept of "zero" was invented?
>
>
>
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