zodiac13 Mar 2006

In short, you are a prize loon. You can't even say what part of numbers you find so exciting and eternal, so I'm going to help you. Here are the possibilities:

1) The symbols and sounds themselves. That is, first you make a w, then a schwa, then a n, and you have 'one'. Or you make a straight vertical line, possibly with a little cap - 1. Well, that's just clodly. Obviously, if every English speaker died or forgot English, there would be no "one" or "1". There would just be "uno", "waHad", ")" or any of a million things. You can't be talking about that.

2) The values themselves. How, in a universe with no intelligent life, you could have a plum and another plum, and you, Dovina, showing up from our universe can say, "Look, a plum and a plum - two plums!", just like in our universe. So then you're not really talking about the independent existence of numbers or number-symbols; you're just talking about the independent existence of OBJECTS: the plums continue to exist even if no one's there to see them. So why don't you just say that? Oh, because numbers are magic. And you're a clod. If you're not, you can't possibly be talking about that.

3) How numbers, the things we call 1, 2, 3, and so on, perfectly correspond to whole objects. Well, obviously. and we have names for all the things that don't correspond to whole objects, like pi, e, or 9.126923683427. For obvious reasons, we've used the shorter symbols to refer to whole things, since we're more likely to be talking about whole eggs or goats. Is that what's so magical? That we made up a short symbol for something we talk about regularly? Then you are a loon.

4) Plato was actually talking about how circles and spheres not only EXIST outside human consciousness, but that they're BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT outside human consciousness. Like, if all humans died and another intelligent species came along millennia later and made a sphere, it would think spheres are the acest shape, too. And gold. They'd think gold was the best substance, because it's, like, God's substance, and God's not going to let anyone forget about it. Do you see how this can't possibly be what you're talking about, rambling about perfect 183? Do you see how, if it is, you're the not-brightest person ever?