"The Pythagoreans, who saw number as a guide to reality, noticed that music could be described in mathematical terms, since the intervals between notes correspond to the ratios between strings. "

Did Pythagoreans see numbers? Or did they see ratios?/1
"But this is to misunderstand the Greek preoccupation with number and harmony."
Were the Greeks preoccupied with number? /2
"This thought shows up in the cosmology of Plato, who was a Pythagorean at heart. The sign over his Academy bearing the motto “Let no one ignorant of ­geometry enter” is apocryphal but apt."
Was geometry of the Ancient Greeks algebra? /3
Pythagorean theorem
The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (a and b) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (c).
"Numbers don’t enter the picture, and the proof is done geometrically."
/4
"A modern text that formulates the Pythagorean Theorem by saying “a right triangle with sides a, b, and hypotenuse c satisfies a2 + b2 = c2”

The theorem would no longer describe visualizable relationships among geometric figures. /5
"Ancient mathematicians devised an elegant way around this by appealing to the notion of ratio. For us, the proportion stating that “the ratio of 2 to 5 is the same as the ratio of 4 to 10” can be expressed as the equation “2/5 = 4/10.” /6
The book is very thick and is a guide for non-experts to understand a different way of thinking, to trace the origins of modern scientific thought. /7
thenewatlantis.com/publications/m…
It is extremely hard if at all possible for the best academics from top schools to advance scientific knowledge and arrive at some semblance of truth. We start with facts and beliefs. In this case that Ancient Greeks were into numbers. Then build from there. /8
We should question facts, beliefs, assumptions. In case of medicine, when we build on shaky foundations that rest of myth, fact, and belief, we arrive nowhere. /9
Bach. The Well-Tempered Clavier. / 10

Star Wars. A New Hope. /11

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More from @Medical_Nemesis

9 Sep
I found the thread underneath intriguing because of all the answers: there’s little solicitation of additional observable info. Majority of answers either look for a problem of numbers within the woman or offer ready solutions based on the numbers presented. /1
There is a split between place of a problem the woman herself as demonstrated by numbers or outside (type of diet, by numbers). /2
As always philosophically it’s between weight and having a decent meal. When the question is framed as weight a solution tends to be different than of you frame a question about the nature of food culture. /3
Read 4 tweets
9 Sep
There are two ways to classify acute respiratory disease: by symptoms (syndrome) or by causative agent. Most of the time a syndrome is used because there is no reason to look for a causative agent. /1
COVID-19 is an outlier. The reason for this is surveillance - we test to track the disease for some reason (epidemiological, political, or other stupid). As with most acute viral respiratory diseases, treatment is supportive not targeted. /2
Had we not gone nuts, there would be no covid-19. Majority of cases would squarely fall into common cold, sinusitis, or flu categories by symptoms. Clinically there is no reason to find what caused any of that because we have no targeted treatment. /3
Read 7 tweets
9 Sep
It is an interesting problem from a philosophical standpoint. One that would fall under the title of mathematization (of nature, reality, man, food). /1
Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe. Galileo Galilei /2
The original wording. /3
Read 4 tweets
8 Sep
This is a good illustration of two different realities that might as well be applied to how we understand life, death, illness, and medicine. The gap between the old and the new is unbridgeable. /1
I don’t know what Goldeneye is so I have no way to relate to the feeling or experience of playing this game. By the question I may imagine it is exciting. This common feeling of excitement if familiar to me. /2
Excitement of adventure when you map the whole village and play cops and robbers (Cossacks and Bandits in the Russian version) into the night. You climb though windows, hide under fisherman’s boats, crawls through vineyards. The whole world is your playground. /3
Read 12 tweets
8 Sep
“Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it.” /1
/3
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17 Jul
On “safe and effective”. /1
FDA is ill suited to guard your interest nor it is positioned to evaluate or decide if a particular therapy is of any benefit to you in the best of circumstances. /2
In case of benevolent liking of potions, there is hypothetically a small subset in a population for whom any cold presents danger and potion might offer a benefit providing they don’t possess personal physiological quirks that will make a potion harmful for them. /3
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