this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
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it's not that it's not "math" it's that the process by which we derive and conceptualize math may be alien to other consciousnesses.
we already have similar things like 0.999... = 1, or algebra, or base 10 v base 16 v base 2... is it so hard to conceive a race with different perception organs, a different "brain" that doesn't look or function like ours, maybe non-carbon-based would operate in a way that is entirely alien?
Consider how from 400 BC to 1800 AD disease was spread by "miasma" and 20,000 years ago it wasn't spread by "anything" because we didn't have a framework or concept of the idea of disease transmission. Consider how before we went to space we thought there was "aether" outside the atmosphere, and before that it was "quinessetence" and before that it was a God or a celestial beetle or whatever...
Are we so bold as to claim that our grasp on what numbers are and their relation to the universe won't change as much in another 2,000 years, or 20,000?