[lit-ideas] Re: Beg to differ, say, about fractals

  • From: dsavory@xxxxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:38:37 -0700 (MST)

When we produced the sequence of natural numbers (or, say, the 'triangle' as a mathematical entity) were we inventing, or were we discovering something that, in some sense, was waiting to be discovered? If the latter, what is the sense in which natural numbers (and triangles) existed prior to their discovery?

Answers on a postcard to:-
Donal
London
 
Does it matter that we can account for objects with a base 2 or a base 6 number series instead of a base 10 one? Is it significant that I could gather us around a heap of pebbles and invent a base 17 system for counting them?
 
And does it matter that the algorithm for doing this would exist nowhere but in our heads? And that its formal structure would be different for each of us?
 
Isn't the creation of a personal practical procedure an invention too?
 
David Savory
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