Friday Speaking

From Fish to Infinity - NYTimes

a most elegant description of the existence of numbers, counting, and addition

(click title to read article)

excerpt:

“A further subtlety is that numbers (and all mathematical ideas, for that matter) have lives of their own. We can’t control them. Even though they exist in our minds, once we decide what we mean by them we have no say in how they behave. They obey certain laws and have certain properties, personalities, and ways of combining with one another, and there’s nothing we can do about it except watch and try to understand. In that sense they are eerily reminiscent of atoms and stars, the things of this world, which are likewise subject to laws beyond our control … except that those things exist outside our heads.” - Steven Strogatz

Oooh…this article makes me want to read his book “The Calculus of Friendship”! I’ve just become a fan. Yes, I’m a nerd, and I embrace it :).