Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/08819_Field_TCGG T584.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 854b | 16 lines

of “double translation” such as appealed deeply to the early
humanists of the Renaissance. Yet today number is as obsolete
as the phonetic alphabet as a means of endowing and applying
experience and knowledge. We are now as post-number as we
are post-literate in the electronic age. There is a mode of
calculation that is pre-digital Dantzig points out (p. 14):

          There exists among the most primitive tribes of
     Australia and Africa a system of numeration which has
     neither 5, 10, nor 20 for base. It is a binary  system, i.e.,
     of base two. These savages have not yet reached finger
     counting. They have independent numbers for one and
     two, and composite numbers up to six. Beyond six
     everything is denoted by “heap”.

     Dantzig indicates that even digital counting is a kind of