CS100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Mathematical Notation, Language Of Mathematics, Orality
Document Summary
String runs across the top and yarns come down with a number of knots in them. Syntax = placement of where things are has meaning, ex. E. e. cummings poem of not rhyming but by placement of words. Sumerian clay scribe = 2700 - 1700 bc. Egyptian papyrus scribe = 2700 - 1700 bc. The more records there are and the more bureaucracy has experience with them, the more power to the state (ascher and ascher) [bureaucratic administration] means fundamentally the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge [that is stored in records] - weber as quoted in ascher and ascher. Color: hundreds (quipu) vs none (sumer) or two black and red in egypt) No instruments, just fingers and strings vs a stylus. Both need learned skill, quipu skill more sensitive. Writing is among the greatest inventions in human history, perhaps the greatest invention since it made history possible .
