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Research taste in history: the importance of learning Babylonian math
50 points7 comments0.2 average comments/hourSubmitted by benbreen
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Setting the AI angle entirely aside, this has always been the value of the humanities: learning how to inhabit an unfamiliar point of view. That's immensely valuable, no matter what you end up doing with your life.
Comment on Hacker News · 2 direct repliesIsn't learning base-60 math helping to understand time calculations? I mean, didn't the author didn't get that or am I simply wrong with that assumption?
Comment on Hacker NewsIt reminds me of the story of Yutaka Taniyama. He was trying to solve elliptic curves, and took a very different approach, that unfortunately didn't work, but it was so unique it got people looking into it, and eventually it was solved. It may not have been solved if this one guy hadn't failed at solving it so uniquely. He committed suicide in part because of his perceived failure. A co-worker of his, Goro Shimura stated: Taniyama was not a very careful person as a mathematician. He made a lot of mistakes. But he made mistakes in a good direction and so eventually he got right answers. I tried to imitate him, but I found out that it is very difficult to make good mistakes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutaka_Taniyama
Comment on Hacker NewsLearning base 2 arithmetic is arguably more useful today, as is hexadecimal. Base 60 is fine if you're only interested in ancient civilization.
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