h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dear Icy north,

Well as soon as I got up this morning I read your contribution on Numbers (friendly)

I had forgotten that Descartes started off life as a mathematician. I know that he has been quite "rejected" by some philosophers, but I have always loved his very profound phrase of

"Je pense donc je suis"

Surely that is the essence of being alive?

Therefore, although one does not/cannot/will not think, one can still be physically alive.

Is that what getting old implies?

Or rather, how society perceives this particular stage of human life.

I was disussing it with my son yesterday. It seems to me that we have made life extremely difficult for our poor old brains by becoming bipeds. !!

We have very successfully developed ourselves into people who give that most important part of our bodies i.e our brain,the area which is most difficult for our life-giving oxygenated blood to reach.!

In order for oxygenated blood to reach our brain, the unfortunate heart has to pump it there, defying that strongest of forces, gravity.

Our feet, however, stay securely planted on the ground, and our wonderful brains, encased in very protective bony skulls, remain up in the sky!!

What idiots we are. We should all revert to being quadrupeds. enabling our brains to receive a sufficient supply of oxygenated blood. !!

Thank you for making that wonderful article so thought provoking. i still think that Descartes had a point when he said that he owed his existence to the fact that he could think.

Je pense donc je suis! - I think therefore I am.

Long may we all continue to think.

How different mathematics would be if numbers were taught the way your wrote about it.. Logically!!

Thank you so much.

Christiane.
AlsoRan80

,

Hello Christiane

Yes, Descartes was certainly as well-known for his mathematical work as he was for his philosophy.

For example, every time you see a graph - those diagrams with a scale along the bottom and another one up one side - then mathematicians call this a "Cartesian" representation of numbers (after Descartes). Every point on that graph is a Cartesian coordinate, consisting of two numbers to indicate its position in each dimension - like a map reference. When we draw lines on graphs, we're just joining up these points.

I remember learning a lot of mathematics at school without ever knowing the names of the mathematicians responsible, so whenever I write about it I try to research the names of these unsung heroes

Hi Icy North,

No, I did not know that those horizontal and vertical lines on a graph were called Cartesian lines. So perhaps perople consider him a better mathematician than a philosopher. !1

I still think (there;s that word again!!) that his "Je pense donc je suis" is so incredibly true. but then perhaps I am being stubborn. !!

But surely, if one is unable to think one might as well be - let's face - dead - which of course is the opposite to existing or existence. !!

What a lot of reading I have to do to catch up on what you have done.

Sadly my eyes stop functioning after about midday and I find it very diffidcult to read after that. I actually can only read on my computer. Or with a big magnifiying glass but that makes my head ache. !1

The perils of age.....

Christiane
AR80