I'm not exactly sure what your asking because I don't really see the difference between a man made number and a number occurring in nature. Numbers are used in math which refers to logic, and some number sequences find themselves in a lot of different things. The point of that post was to show that yes they are in nature, but that almost every number could be found if you looked hard enough, remember the movie 23! Trailer -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnMp5rW56J8
I mentioned a few number sequences such as Fibonacci and Elliot Waves. Fibonacci is the sequence 0-1-1-2-3-5-8-etc. and it can be found in a bunch of flowers, structure of certain insect colonies, some say shells, trees, pine cones and on and on. Elliot Waves are used to predict economic activity under the idea that human behavior is predictable.. and the whole Elliot wave concept was adapted by many other fields in psychology to explain other behaviors. Blah blah blah.
Oh and don't forget Profpat's 3s and 8s! : )
Dear KiGs,
So then there are no numbers that naturally exist other than the numbers that we create, like 1 and 2, right? Man has also created the letters of the alphabet, like A & B, but again, without mankind's inventiveness, they wouldn't exist ether, would they? Without mankind, nature would be void of numbers and letters.
So then there are no numbers that naturally exist other than the numbers that we create, like 1 and 2, right? Man has also created the letters of the alphabet, like A & B, but again, without mankind's inventiveness, they wouldn't exist ether, would they? Without mankind, nature would be void of numbers and letters.
= MJA
Sure, man created mathematics as a way of communicating physical laws to each other. Without mathematics, the world would still be the same, but we wouldn't be able to describe the physical laws, or make any predictions.
__________________ ~neutralino
If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day - John A. Wheeler.
I tell my students that the beginning of arithmetic and writing began when mankind began accounting for his livestock. This basic thought pattern began with what is known as One to One correspondence.
~4000 BC in Mesopatamia, man would pick up a hunk of mud and with a twig make slash marks in the mud. Each slash mark represented something of reality, like a goat going out to pasture. As the goats came back he could cross off each slash mark, thereby accounting for all his goats. If all the slash marks were not crossed off he knew there were goats still out in pasture and send out his children to retrieve them. Only after all the original slash marks were crossed off could he go to sleep. ( Lost sheep parable ).
Now he didn't invent a numbering system yet, but the concept that a certain number of goats was still established and cetainly WITH OR WITHOUT a numbering system, still a certain NUMBER of goats or sheep still existed.
//////// represents the number of goats. Now the number 8 was not invented yet, still 8 goats is represented.
This is the foundation of representation, which started math and writing.
It's not surprising that the oldest written artifacts is just that, recordkeeping.
Best,
Pat
Last edited by Profpat; 04-17-2008 at 06:46 PM.
Reason: Added a word and spelling
Sure, man created mathematics as a way of communicating physical laws to each other. Without mathematics, the world would still be the same, but we wouldn't be able to describe the physical laws, or make any predictions.
We wouldn't judge or measure as much either, would we? And what about time? We would probably wake up when the sun came up. And go to work just after that. And oh what a stress relief that would be, wouldn't it? Life without numbers might have been a better and more simply way of life. Can we try it and see?
Life without numbers might have been a better and more simply way of life. Can we try it and see?
Life would not be "better without numbers," although it would certainly be simpler! You can try it, if you like-- discard anything that involves mathematics. So, get rid of you computer, television, radio, central heating, any electrical appliance, etc etc..
__________________ ~neutralino
If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day - John A. Wheeler.
Kind of reminds me of the idyllic life of the Sho tribe in the Kalahari Desert as portrayed in the movie THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY. I'm with you Neutralino, I would be lost without my electric umbilical cord.
However this conversation is going off topic, and if I may suggest,while the topic is interesting, maybe you could start a new thread MJA discussing this issue.
Thanks to KiGs diagram I plan on elaborating more on the I Ching and on the dynamics of complementary opposites later today.
Linear Mode
