Time Isn\'\'t What it Seems to be (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 23:08 (4925 days ago) @ David Turell

Here is another Amazonian tribe with amazing skills in geometry, with no formal education. Just where did that come from? Not from the needs of a primative society. The authors think it is sort of built in, a non-Darwinian stance I would think.
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13469925-Stories like this aren't new; geometry was how modern mathematics began in the first place, based upon intuitive notions of space and distance. (Pharoah needed to collect his taxes!!!!)-All humans have the ability for spatial reasoning. Hunter-gatherer societies need it to shoot arrows, gauge distances, build houses (or huts, or whatever). Clothing. They probably also use it for whatever farming they might engage in, though obviously on a different scale. To someone like me, this is an example of "Scientists have discovered that eating too much causes obesity."-That article is misleading because of this: "The basic tenets of geometry as most people know them..."-Euclid formalized geometry, he didn't invent most of what appears in "The Elements". His "Elements" was really an encyclopedic work; his innovation was in proving all of the concepts formally. But mathematicians in India, China, and Egypt were already using many of the techniques prior to Euclid, and those familiar with the history of mathematics universally agree on this point.-A fantastic point that many physicists like to point out is summed up at the end of the article:-"The education of Euclidean geometry is so strong that we take for granted it's going to apply everywhere, including spherical surfaces. Our education plays a trick with us, leading us to believe things which are not correct."

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"