4 ms·

As far as geniuses go, many of the people we would think of as geniuses today have two things the people we are discussing here had not: - They are able to sta

by kqr 4y ago

As far as geniuses go, many of the people we would think of as geniuses today have two things the people we are discussing here had not: - They are able to stand on the shoulders of a far broader range of giants, thanks to writing; and - They have access to far more tools of reasoning (arithmetic with Roman numerals is just the start!) that those in the past did not have. So while there may well have been intellectual equals to the geniuses of today also back then, they would not have been able to perform the feats of geniuses today. Again, for lack of tooling, not wit.

eropple 4y ago
> arithmetic with Roman numerals is just the start! Arabic, I think you mean. Arithmetic with Roman numerals is awful.
- laxmin 4y ago
  Hindu numerals if we have to be precise, transmitted to the west by Arabs
  - eropple 4y ago
    Right, true--the term I've most often heard in Western circles these days is "Hindu-Arabic" numerals, but I didn't want to confuse.
    - CydeWeys 4y ago
      I've also heard the term Western Arabic, contrasted with Eastern Arabic.
- Jedd 4y ago
  > Arabic, I think you mean. Arithmetic with Roman numerals is awful. Hindu numerals, do you mean?
  - earth_walker 4y ago
    Why Hindu (the religion) and not Hindi (the language)?
    - Jedd 4y ago
      I really don't know. It's generally phrased as Hindu-originating - I can only speculate why it's now attached to a religious / social group rather than a language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hindu%E2%80%93Arabic_numeral_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hindu%E2%80%93A...
- kqr 4y ago
  ...of course. Roman numerals held us back for centuries. Sorry about that embarrassing brainfart.