A very interesting read. I hope you keep blogging! For what it's worth, I think of the natural numbers not as the simplest concept in mathematics, but as a con

A very interesting read. I hope you keep blogging! For what it's worth, I think of the natural numbers not as the simplest concept in mathematics, but as a concept built on top of concepts like "existence vs nonexistence" and perhaps "singular vs plural", which seem like they are pre-mathematics in a sense, built into the grammar of our regular spoken language, perhaps even comprehensible by animals. Not sure if you are interested in taking your blog in that sort of philosophical direction but I think there might be even more interesting math history before the start of your post.