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"‘The brain, a biological organ with a genetically defined wiring scheme, is predisposed to acquire a number system,’ said the neurobiologist Andreas Nieder of
by sushisource 9y ago
"‘The brain, a biological organ with a genetically defined wiring scheme, is predisposed to acquire a number system,’ said the neurobiologist Andreas Nieder of the University of Tübingen in Germany. ‘Culture can only shape our number faculty within the limits of the capacities of the brain. Without this predisposition, number symbols would lie [forever] beyond our grasp.’"
Well that seems like absolute nonsense. How do we understand computers then? Or almost literally any art form?
- civilian 9y agoBecause computers are just logic combined with numbers. (The 32gb RAM is attached to the motherboard, which has 32gb.) And for art, we _also_ have other brain systems that understand how to judge beauty in people and landscapes. I think a more interesting example is quantum physics. Humans have a difficult time understanding it, because it doesn't jive with our normative understanding of the world. But we are still able to understand it, because it is just very messy logic.
- sushisource 9y agoRight, which seems sort of exactly the argument in the article. "Numbers" are just us extrapolating from "quantity".