The Passion of Dantzig, among other things

0. Precariously on leave, which here means much is to follow. Very much.
{I am asexual and reproduce via budding. Yee Chien has found my offspring at her staircase.} Excuse me, but what the photon did that mean?

1. I haven't forgotten to enjoy myself meanwhile.

Got this at a time just when I thought I've had enough of expository literature; astronomy, linguistics, philosophy or whatnot. Picked up the book Number: The Language of Science (1930) by Tobias Dantzig from the Mathematics shelf, because you can say that the Maths shelf is an underexplored last refuge. It had a quote from Einstein on the cover saying that this is beyond doubt the most interesting book on the history of maths that he's ever read, so it must be something.

1 The front part narrates the mathematicians' equivalent of lurching around in circles in a mangrove swamp. Progress is made on counting, adding and subtracting, which Dantzig reveals is not easy. The exploration of numerical symbols in different cultures is a good tidbit, and probably supplied the spark for my latest art project.

2 In the middle parts we learn that the Greek, while brilliant, were also very bored people. Skip especially the Diophantine algebra, which I don't think you will need or want very much to know. At this point, I began to doubt Einstein.

3 In the later parts, rapid progress is made in mathematical fields. Infinite processes are now in exploration, leading mathematicians to discover new entities in mathematics. Dantzig marvels at how such entities, e.g. transcendantals and complex numbers, while having mothing to do with the real world on the onset of discovery, nevertheless finds some relationship eventually and now acts as a firm foundation for modern science.

At part (3) Dantzig's style morphs into some kind of wild-eyed passion, dramatising the phenomenal shifts of mathematical discovery deep into the realms of the absurd. Of the most arresting and most dramatised of such accounts is the one of Georg Cantor and the theory of aggregates. He writes as an intro:

"It was fortunate for Cantor that mature reflection had thoroughly steeled him to face the onslaught, because for many years to come he had to bear the struggle alone. And what a struggle! The history of mathematics has not recorded anything equal to it in fury. "The story beginnings of the theory of aggregates show that even in such an abstract field as mathematics, human emotions cannot be altogether eliminated."

4 By the time we reach the epilogue, the climate has become very philosophical. Dantzig now talks about what mathematics has got to do with reality, and here is the conclusion to this question that I think it draws:
There is no reality without Number

2. I'm taking a liking to Cape Breton fiddling. Cape Breton Island is part of Nova Scotia, which is a Canadian Maritime Province. Do not confuse with the Bretons of Brittany, who are subjects of the French Republic. The island of Cape Breton is a stronghold for Scottish diaspora, who brought their music along when they came. Natalie MacMaster fiddles in an interesting way; it sounds very wholesomely-toned for something which also sounds maltreated.

Natalie MacMaster's fiddling is oddly appropriate to listen to while one is reading Dantzig's stories of swashbuckling mathematicians.

3. Last Sunday I was confirmed at Church of the Holy Cross accompanied by godmother and mentor Ms Helen Isaac in a mass ceremony headed by the Archbishop himself. Oh, and Ernest was there too.

The days 25-27 October were basked in a warm glow, because I was well-prepared to become Stefan.