Saturday, April 29, 2006

No numbers!

Apparently, the Piraha tribe in Brazil do not have any concept of numbers or counting at all! Imagine that - a world without numbers. This is really interesting. It proves something I always believed - words are not mere ways to describe your thoughts. If it weren't for the words, the thought probably wouldn't have been there. Here's the link.

1 Comments:

At 10:28 AM, Blogger Nadeem Mohsin said...

The idea you're referring to is more commonly known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Look it up on Wikipedia - it's an interesting concept. And btw, if you find this sort of thing interesting, read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I've got the ebook if you want it. The first part will seem rather odd and unrelated(though the names are hilarious - the leading character is a black guy with samurai swords called Hiro Protagonist. :D). The second part rocks, especially when he unravels the central mystery. Definitely a must-read.

 

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