Aztec Math

[kbs2244]

So the Aztec’s were figuring out area, using Sumerian formulas, before any European contact?


http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=azt ... and-arrows

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... -math.html

[Beagle]

I don't see the Sumerian connection, KB, although I expect math formulas would be universal.

[kbs2244]

In the Nat Geo post they mention a "Sumerian algorithm."

[Ishtar]

Sorry ... channeling?

To figure this out, mathematician Maria del Carmen Jorge y Jorge of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (U.N.A.M) channeled the mind of an Aztec land surveyor. That meant retraining herself to use a different numerical system and combing through the Codex Vergara, one of two remaining books that record Aztec land surveying.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against 'channeling' or 'divining' as per the Pythonian Oracles per se, and do a fair bit myself. But I wouldn't try and support a theory, particularly about the maths used in ancient Aztec land surveying, on this board by saying 'Well, it must be true because I got it by channelling," as you'd all accuse me of being unscientific... wouldn't you?

I'm just asking because if we are going to start accepting channellng as evidence of anything, I've got LOADS to tell you!

[john]

Sorry ... channeling?

To figure this out, mathematician Maria del Carmen Jorge y Jorge of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (U.N.A.M) channeled the mind of an Aztec land surveyor. That meant retraining herself to use a different numerical system and combing through the Codex Vergara, one of two remaining books that record Aztec land surveying.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against 'channeling' or 'divining' as per the Pythonian Oracles per se, and do a fair bit myself. But I wouldn't try and support a theory, particularly about the maths used in ancient Aztec land surveying, on this board by saying 'Well, it must be true because I got it by channelling," as you'd all accuse me of being unscientific... wouldn't you?

I'm just asking because if we are going to start accepting channellng as evidence of anything, I've got LOADS to tell you!

All -

Oboy,

I just love waking up on a Saturday morning, and,

On my second mug of tea,

Checking out this forum to

Find yet another lovely chunk

Of cognitive high explosives to play with.

OK.......

Linguistic Notation

Musical Notation

Mathematical Notation

Astronomical Notation

Just for starters.

I played the piano for a number of years

And learned to sight-read music.

I remember the moment when looking at a

Sheet of music turned from a nonsensical scatter

Of meaningless ink

Into

A "bicameral" understanding of the score

Which translated instantaneously into the

Physical activity of my hands & fingers playing the music.

Similarly, in college, learning Attic Greek,

A tonal language,

When it turned from an awkward and external process

Of "translation" into

An immediate and internal fluency.

Are these examples of cognitive techne as real as

Flaked flint spearheads or

Boats

or

The use of hematite?

You bet your nelly, absolutely.

Which gets me back to a post I wrote a while back

Concerning Multiple Independent Invention

Versus

Rapid Inter Cultural Communication.

I think you all know where I'm going with this.

Each of our nervous systems

- Not the brain only, but the entire neurological entity -

Contains the cognitive strata of at least tens of

Thousands of years, if not hundreds.

Like sheet music or Attic Greek,

Most of us can't "read" it.

Only because we haven't tried, whether due to

Laziness, fear of the unknown, or cultural conditioning.

I find the word "channelling" to be a very

Accurate descriptor of, say,

"Reading" Aztec surveying notation,

Because it does bring you, in a literal, bicameral sense,

Exactly into the mind(s) of its creators.


hoka hey


john

[john]

All -

Post Scriptum:


I see no topological difference between

Analyzing physical evidence for

Genetic or chemical "marker" isotopes and

Analyzing neurological evidence for

Cognitive "marker" isotopes.


john

[kbs2244]

I am guessing a case of poor translation from Spanish to English.
I think the thought was to “think like an Aztec land surveyor”

[Rokcet Scientist]

I am guessing a case of poor translation from Spanish to English.
I think the thought was to “think like an Aztec land surveyor”

Maybe it was also an attempt to make it sound more interesting than it is to the general populace, and to consciously obfuscate and mystify the process. A mechanism we see in politics every day.

[john]

I am guessing a case of poor translation from Spanish to English.
I think the thought was to “think like an Aztec land surveyor”

Maybe it was also an attempt to make it sound more interesting than it is to the general populace, and to consciously obfuscate and mystify the process. A mechanism we see in politics every day.

Well now -

From Mr Dylan -

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."

Well Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose
Welfare Department they wouldn't give him no clothes
He asked poor Howard where can I go
Howard said there's only one place I know
Sam said tell me quick man I got to run
Ol' Howard just pointed with his gun
And said that way down on Highway 61.

Well Mack the Finger said to Louie the King
I got forty red white and blue shoe strings
And a thousand telephones that don't ring
Do you know where I can get rid of these things
And Louie the King said let me think for a minute son
And he said yes I think it can be easily done
Just take everything down to Highway 61.

Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night
Told the first father that things weren't right
My complexion she said is much too white
He said come here and step into the light he says hmm you're right
Let me tell the second mother this has been done
But the second mother was with the seventh son
And they were both out on Highway 61.

Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored
He was tryin' to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61.


So, hombres,

"it jus mus be a problem wit de translation."

I don't think so.


john

[john]

I am guessing a case of poor translation from Spanish to English.
I think the thought was to “think like an Aztec land surveyor”

Maybe it was also an attempt to make it sound more interesting than it is to the general populace, and to consciously obfuscate and mystify the process. A mechanism we see in politics every day.

Well now -

From Mr Dylan -

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."

Well Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose
Welfare Department they wouldn't give him no clothes
He asked poor Howard where can I go
Howard said there's only one place I know
Sam said tell me quick man I got to run
Ol' Howard just pointed with his gun
And said that way down on Highway 61.

Well Mack the Finger said to Louie the King
I got forty red white and blue shoe strings
And a thousand telephones that don't ring
Do you know where I can get rid of these things
And Louie the King said let me think for a minute son
And he said yes I think it can be easily done
Just take everything down to Highway 61.

Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night
Told the first father that things weren't right
My complexion she said is much too white
He said come here and step into the light he says hmm you're right
Let me tell the second mother this has been done
But the second mother was with the seventh son
And they were both out on Highway 61.

Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored
He was tryin' to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61.


So, hombres,

"it jus mus be a problem wit de translation."

I don't think so.


john

[Ishtar]

KBS - 'channeling' is a specific term and means something specific.

Channelers are people who get in touch with other 'intelligence', shall we say, of people who used to live on Earth, or even spirits who have never had a human body, and they 'channel' messages from them. They are like conduits for this kind of information, which can take the form of automatic writing or just speaking like an Oracle. Some of these people are genuine and some are absolute frauds.

This woman is claiming to have 'channeled' information direct from an land surveyor who was alive and practising his land surveying in Aztec times.

[kbs2244]

Come on, Ish,
You know what sound bites are.
Even in Mexico I would expect she would be laughed out of her job if she was seriously suggesting a "mystic experience."
If it is a good tranlation then it is a tranlation of someone trying for a headline grab.

[Ishtar]

I would say "channeled the mind of an Aztec land surveyor" is a pretty specific claim, seeing there arent't any Aztec land surveyors around today.

[rich]

If you click on the link for the first site ( http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=azt ... and-arrows ) then click on the link for her name and then her picture, it gives you the telephone number for her as well as her email address. What better way than straight from the horses mouth? Just don't have a whole bunch of people doin it - she'll shut down.

[Ishtar]

I think KBS should contact her as he is the one doubting the story.