[lit-ideas] Numbers
- From: AT <atri2715@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 01:15:59 -0500
>>Computers don't read numbers. They only read binary states: on or off.
It is 1 am and I just realized what a number is. Vexing, maddening question.
Robert and Paul--take note, please. Before I forget. I must not let this
contribution go to waste. This is my theory:
There are only two fundamental numbers. 0 and 1. Everything else is a
combination of them, fundamentally speaking. But what do they "mean"; what
"are" they? Platonic forms? The concept of Platonic forms is too confusing to
denote anything unambiguous. What numbers are, perhaps, is: fundamental,
irreducible cognitive units by means of which thought proceeds. Switces,
quanta, discrete mental/ chemical events by means of which we order perception
into 2 fundamental states:
0= nothing, non-existence, emptiness
1= something, everything, existence (ousia, origin, genesis...)
Everything proceeds from there. Could it not be so? The mind is perhaps
binary, and its fundamental units by which thought proceeds is 0 and 1---being
vs. nothingness. The idea of numbers is the idea of a fundamental distinction
between something and nothing. By means of this distinction, nature and
perception become quantifiable, understandable, iterable. Numbers are mnemonic
ways of making sense of perception. 0 and 1, as pure numbers, make, not
only thinking, but perception itself possible. They may be the deepest
structure of perception.
I'm not really joking, just freestyling--sorry if this sounds kind of silly
and amateurish, this is a profound question, but I can not expand more now,
just taking a stab in the dark. I'm sure it must have been said before
somewhere. Good night--
Alex Trifan/ Boston
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
