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Benjamin Franz scripsit:
> No. _Simple arithmetic_ can be performed (wheezingly, painfully, by the
> hair of your teeth) with Roman numerals. Mathematics would be impossibly
> painful. And was.
And in fact the Romans and their successors didn't use Roman numerals to
do calculations, only to record their results. Actual calculation was
performed on digital computers (and I don't mean fingers, although doubtless
there was some of that, too).
> The two interact and
> shape each other in deep and fundamental ways. Far from being the
> 'master', thought is engaged in an ongoing symbiotic dance with its tools.
Hear, hear.
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