Numbers and Spaces


The reason numbers have hypnotized our species to the extent they have is that numbers transport accurately across spaces. The agreements or beliefs which tell us that 3 is 3 does not get altered traveling. Almost any other belief or evaluation can get badly altered in receipt. But 6 is 6 the world around. Tell someone you have six children and he'll get their ages, sexes and faces wrong in trying to imagine the data. But he'll fill in the 'six' part perfectly

There are two key beliefs here: numbers represent one, and spaces represent another. Because numbers slide easily from space to space they help reinforce our fragile, precious conviction in common space.

The fact that the 'six' part of your communication about your children travels so precisely is a good argument that the space from which you sent the communication is the same as the space at which it arrived. But the wild variations in duplication which accompany almost any other datum is an argument in the direction of different spaces.

Other technical data seem to transport well: "press escape to cancel the screen" or "depress clutch before shifting gears". The key to the accuracy is that there is a certain likeness between all clutches described by the manual in question.

It implies falsely that this clutch is the same as other clutches, which it is not. But it is accurate enough in application. And that reinforces the belief that there is one space. This is a dangerous association of things which in truth are more different than they are alike.

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