[lit-ideas] Of flying and counting

Just want to say that I heard some hopeful news about the economy today.  U.S. 
exports are slated for a possible rebirth.  It seems the falling dollar has 
made the U.S. an interesting place for foreigners like Air Bus to build 
factories in.  Also, it seems that nothing beats high oil prices like high oil 
prices.  In other words, the high oil prices are causing trucking companies to 
partner with railroads to begin shipping products by rail instead of by road.  
That means large investments in rail infrastructure.  All of that's good news 
for the economy.  
   
  I want to say that I ordered some DVD's from The Teaching Company.  I ordered 
some lectures on art which I haven't opened yet, and also a lecture series on 
numbers.  It's quite good.  We watched the first three segments (30 minutes 
each).  I don't know why I was rather surprised that in most of mankind's 
history, something like the first 30,000 years (if I remember correctly) there 
were literally no numbers.  Over time people learned to use counting methods 
such as using as many pebbles as they had sheep to make sure all the sheep were 
accounted for.  And of course, parts of the hand, including joints (so you 
could count to 20 using two hands), and then add toes, were used.  Over time 
humans (same brains as you and me)  learned to use notched sticks (stocks) 
which they split in two (half for you, half for me; origin of the word 
stockholder) to mark a certain grain exchange say.  
   
  There was a 1,700 year time period between at least one pretty basic by our 
standards discovery involving numbers.  Negative numbers were rejected even as 
late as 200 years ago.  Cuneiform was actually a counting method for 
transactions that eventually became the forerunner of writing.  
   
  China as well as other civilizations (like the Maya) also had very 
sophisticated methods but their evidence mostly disappeared due to the more 
humid weather, where clay tablets survived in hot dry climate.  I realized we 
today learn in the first few years of our lives what took literally tens of 
thousands of years for humanity to develop.  Who would think that counting, or 
a fraction like one-half, isn't self evident?  But it isn't.  It had to be 
discovered and taught and it took most of history to discover.
   
  Also, crows can count to the number four, which is as high as humans can 
recognize in one clump, say four sheep.  More than four of something we have to 
count.  That's the reason the "gated five" was developed, i.e., the four 
vertical lines with a horizontal line through them that we use to count by 5's. 
 And truly, what is a number?  What is the number 2, or a number 9 for example? 
 I can't answer that and I don't know whether by the end of the series he will 
either.  Really interesting stuff.
   
   

       
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