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This example just shows the pains of addition-multiplication and division were even more painstaking. If you thought you were bad at arithmetic using numbers, just try doing it with letters.Ĭalculation performed using the Hindu-Arabic system is significantly more straightforward than with Roman numerals-and energy-efficient systems have a tendency to win out in the long run, as we saw when the steam engine outcompeted animal-sourced power or when capitalism prevailed over socialism (another important point to remember for Bitcoin later). Many ancient civilizations developed rudimentary numeral systems: in 2000 BCE, the Babylonians, who failed to conceptualize zero, used two symbols in different arrangements to create unique numerals between 1 and 60:
Absolute territory goldenratio full#
Math, the language of numerals, originally developed from a practical desire to count things-whether it was the amount of fish in the daily catch or the days since the last full moon. Numerals, which are symbols for numbers, are the greatest abstractions ever invented by mankind: virtually everything we interact with is best grasped in numerical, quantifiable, or digital form. To better understand this, we will walk down a winding path covering more than 4,000 years of human history that led to zero becoming part of the empirical bedrock of modernity. Zero is an abstract conception and is not discernible in the physical world-no one goes shopping for zero apples. Since money and math are mankind’s two universal languages, both Bitcoin and zero are critical constructs for civilization.įor most of history, mankind had no concept of zero: an understanding of it is not innate to us-a symbol for it had to be invented and continuously taught to successive generations. In reality, Bitcoin is special, and so is zero: each is an invention which led to a discovery that fundamentally reshaped its overarching system-for Bitcoin, that system is money, and for zero, it is mathematics.
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Many believe that Bitcoin is “just one of thousands of cryptoassets”-this is true in the same way that the number zero is just one of an infinite series of numbers. “In the history of culture the discovery of zero will always stand out as one of the greatest single achievements of the human race.” - Tobias Danzig, Number: The Language of Science