Necessary separation

 "Print assured the victory of numbers or visual position early in the sixteenth century. By the later sixteenth century the art of statistics was already growing" pg.181-182

McLuhan 181-end

This ties in to the discussion we had during the last class. People really didn't begin to have major concern with dating things until around the 16th century. The writing process was still manual at the time, and people desired to find a way to speed up the accumulation and calculation of figures and numbers. Sveral different numbering systems were introduced (Roman, Arabic). John Napier, a Scottish mathemetician, invented the decimal system, logarithms (number to the the tenth, twentieth, etc. power). and the "Bones" instrument (a precursor to the calculator). It was sets of multiplication tables written on wood or bones. It was used for multiplication, division, and roots.

Then something separated letters and numbers forever. Instead of subtracting and adding from left to right (the way we read, at least in America), it was discovered that results came about much faster when operation occured from right to left. The reading habit was reversed.

This split, says Nef, that led to the discoverey and separation of letters and numbers, which is why the arts and sciences are still separate today. Their developments depended on the separation.