On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 8:57 PM, Thaths <[email protected]> wrote > A linguist friend of mine says that while many species communicate, it > is only homo sapiens that have language. I have a strong intuition > (based on many previous claims of such human exceptionalism that > proved to be untrue) is that this is an arbitrary distinction that > will fall away. > >> Mathematics is about abstraction and the manipulation of abstractions. An >> entirely new way of thinking about the world. > > What if it is shown that bird brains are capable of doing basic arithmetic?
Then we can find a mathematician who says that while many species can do basic calculation, it is only Homo sapiens that does arithmetic. I cannot think of anything less abstract than numbers. To me, a number is such a pre-determined, nailed-down, inflexible in-your-face constant.
