John-Paul Flintoffhttps://pluralistic.net/2026/03/19/jargon-watch/
“language isn't math (which is why double negatives are intensifiers, not negators)”
Phosphenes@johnpaulflintoff @pluralistic
I once tried to work out a 'Spanish negatives' multiplication system, where EG:
-2 * -3 = -6
so square_root(-9) = -3 and so on.
It's all fun and games until you multiply negatives times positives and try to come out with symmetrical answers.
But it does make one wonder if our language had been different, maybe our math would have been too.
Oggie@Phosphenes @johnpaulflintoff @pluralistic
The conceptualization of 'zero' as a concept instead of just 'nothing' basically heralded the entire structure behind moving away from mathmatical proofs as geometry vs logic, which is really fascinating.
People hear it now and think 'they were stupid', but the reality is they were just extremely grounded in physical terms (the irony of Plato in this is easy to see).