Drive-by Blogging

• 2009-11-08

  A friend of mine asked a speaker if he could say, in his language, how many spears he had. None of the Australian aboriginal languages has any words for numbers other than 1 and 2, so all he could do was list them. He said, ‘Well, I have a ceremonial spear, a long throwing spear, a shorter throwing spear, a jabbing spear and a broad blade spear.’ ‘That makes five,’ my friend said. ‘If you say so,’ he agreed. ‘If I took one away,’ my friend asked, ‘how many would you have left?’ ‘Well,’ he replied, ‘it depends on which one you took away, doesn’t it?’

  — The problem of infinity

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