Re: Tackling John Baez Head-On

>>From Osher Doctorow

Let's go back - far back - to Ancient Athens and Ancient Egypt and to
Archimedes and to Pierre De Fermat who started the modern era of Number
Theory and cryptography.

Geometry was the password, and Arithmetic but not
Algebra-Without-Arithmetic. And Observation-of-the-physical-world.

Was it coincidence that Geometry and Arithmetic and the rudiments of
Science and Philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Thales, Pythagoras,
etc.) came first? Not in my opinion.

Non-arithmetic Algebra has too many details and directions to give
clues. It's great for "following" after enough clues and rules come in
from other fields. Otherwise it degenerates into fads. Pierre De
Fermat began with Arithmetic (Number Theory) and co-discovered
Probability with Pascal. He eventually discovered Cartesian/Analytic
Geometry which combines Algebra and Geometry before Descartes. But he
didn't use it much! Yes, it helped greatly. But up to a point. Try
to quickly discover with Analytic Geometry and we'd still be in the
1600s in progress. But then came along the Philosopher Leibniz and the
Scientist Sir Isaac Newton.

Osher Doctorow

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