--- begin forwarded text
Status: U From: "Gordon Mohr" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: The Secret Lives of Numbers Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 01:17:05 -0800 Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare <fork.xent.com> More search-engine datamining, interesting topic, vivid applet. Does your ATM code appear more often than the numbers around it? http://www.turbulence.org/Works/nums/index.html # The authors conducted an exhaustive empirical study, with the aid of # custom software, public search engines and powerful statistical # techniques, in order to determine the relative popularity of every # integer between 0 and one million. The resulting information # exhibits an extraordinary variety of patterns which reflect and # refract our culture, our minds, and our bodies. # # For example, certain numbers, such as 212, 486, 911, 1040, 1492, # 1776, 68040, or 90210, occur more frequently than their neighbors # because they are used to denominate the phone numbers, tax forms, # computer chips, famous dates, or television programs that figure # prominently in our culture. Regular periodicities in the data, # located at multiples and powers of ten, mirror our cognitive # preference for round numbers in our biologically-driven base-10 # numbering system. Certain numbers, such as 12345 or 8888, appear to # be more popular simply because they are easier to remember. # # Humanity's fascination with numbers is ancient and complex. Our # present relationship with numbers reveals both a highly developed # tool and a highly developed user, working together to measure, # create, and predict both ourselves and the world around us. But like # every symbiotic couple, the tool we would like to believe is # separate from us (and thus objective) is actually an intricate # reflection of our thoughts, interests, and capabilities. One # intriguing result of this symbiosis is that the numeric system we # use to describe patterns, is actually used in a patterned fashion to # describe. # # We surmise that our dataset is a numeric snaphot of the collective # consciousness. Herein we return our analyses to the public in the # form of an interactive visualization, whose aim is to provoke # awareness of one's own numeric manifestations. # # The Secret Life of Numbers by Golan Levin, et. al. (February 2002) # is a commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., for its # Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from The # Greenwall Foundation. Further information here. http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
