There are
numerous numbering systems. The system
most widely used in society is base ten.
The base ten system has ten numbers: 0123456789. We have ten fingers and ten toes so this is
a system easily visualized. Where the individual
numbers fall (the place value) determines the overall value of the number.
5283.12
The octal (base
eight system) has eight numbers 01234567
The counting
system that runs the world (computer language) is binary or base 2. It only contains two numbers: a one and a
zero.
001 = 1
010 – 2
011 = 3
100 = 4
101 = 5
110 = 6
111 = 7
1000 = 8
1001 = 9
1010 = 10 etc.
Where the
number ‘one’ falls determines the value of the product.
View the place values as a series of switches. Each
switch can be either on or off - one or zero. There
are thousands of switches on a microchip and the order you turn them on or off
determines the value of any certain number.
Mathematics
is a language, and when physicist exceed their ability to express concepts in
verbal language, they resort to mathematics formulas.
OK, where am
I going with this?
We are
constantly looking for intelligent life in the universe. We always view alien life as having a head,
legs, arms and a body, with some similarity to humans, or at least something familiar to us.
We are a carbon
base life form and the general consensus when looking for life in the universe
is to look for elements with carbon base that might indicate life.
But what if
the intelligent life in the universe is not carbon based – but mathematical based. Suppose the dark matter that physicists are always
searching for is actually an intelligent binary life form with energy spikes
falling in a place value system far exceeding anything that we can comprehend. We tend to call it AI or Artificial Intelligence,
when it is possibly OI – Original Intelligence: life that is not physical but intellectual.
I wish that some teacher in school had told me that math is a language. I'd have been much more interested in it.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would love to know is why in the early morning hours do we have these intelligent thoughts when during most of the daylight hours we are basically brain dead? Is there a reason for that?
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that there was one ancient civilization that used a base six to do mathematics, and it somehow makes calculus unnecessary. Don't quote me, you know how the Internet is. But yeah, if this was in my mind at 4:00 am, I believe I would just get up and dress for the day and watch Dr. Phil.
ReplyDelete