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You got a point there (pun intended :) about the symbol for zero. I guess I was being generous with interpreting the parent comment, by mentioning the (possibl
by lioeters 7y ago
You got a point there (pun intended :) about the symbol for zero.
I guess I was being generous with interpreting the parent comment, by mentioning the (possibly common and cross-cultural) visual association of a circle with womanhood, a straight vertical line with manhood.
I didn't mean to imply that the symbols for zero and one have direct historical origins in those ideas - like the parent comment might have suggested - but I do think there is a philosophical or artistic merit in drawing the analogy.
- perl4ever 7y agoI never heard of this. Have you ever heard of the symbols also used for Mars and Venus indicating male and female? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_symbol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_symbol According to that page, in some contexts, a circle means female and a square means male, but I've never heard of that before either.
- lioeters 7y agoInteresting, I've seen the symbols for Mars and Venus being used to represent genders, but not a square or triangle for male. As for zero/circle/woman and one/vertical line/man.. I guess in my mind, they couldn't be more obvious, universal and simple - to put it crudely: the hole and the stick. But also: off and on, dark and light, absence and presence. (So far, I have found no historical evidence that supports the above theory, no basis in logic or fact. I'll leave it as idle speculation on a possible primordial/mythological way of thinking in pictures, with perhaps two of the most primitive symbols.)