Roman numerals
Article
Roman numerals is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between March 23, 2021 and October 14, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as “Roman numerals (the only numerals anyone had at the time) were too unwieldy to add or subtract”; ""95” in Roman numerals is “VC"". It most often appears alongside 2008 crisis, @literalbanana, A Failure, But Not Of Prediction.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: March 23, 2021
- Last seen: October 14, 2021
Appears In
Related Pages
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- 2008 crisis (1 shared issues)
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- @literalbanana (1 shared issues)
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- A Failure, But Not Of Prediction (1 shared issues)
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- ACX (1 shared issues)
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- Ancient Phoenicia (1 shared issues)
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- Animal Chow (1 shared issues)
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- anti-rationalism (1 shared issues)
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- Antifragile (1 shared issues)
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- Baath Party (1 shared issues)
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- Barcelona (1 shared issues)
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- Bay Area (1 shared issues)
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- behavioral econ (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
I've grown used to this in medicine, but I was surprised to see Taleb point out the same effect in fields like physics and engineering. For example, he argues that jet engines just sort of happened when engineers played around with airplane engines enough; physicists didn't explain how they worked until later. Engineers were already designing systems along cybernetic principles long before Wiener invented theoretical cybernetics. Medieval European architecture was done essentially without mathematics - Roman numerals (the only numerals anyone had at the time) were too unwieldy to add or subtract, and "according to the medieval science historian Guy Beaujouan, before the thirteenth century no more than five persons in the whole of Europe knew how to perform division."
25: The 1517 Fund is a venture capital firm that “focus[es] on backing founders without degrees”. Their site says: “On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to a church door in Wittenberg to protest the sale of indulgences. These were pieces of paper the establishment church sold at great cost, telling people it would save their souls. The church made a fortune doing it. Likewise, universities today are selling a piece of paper at great cost and telling people that buying it is the only way they can save their souls. Universities call it a diploma, and they’re making a fortune doing it. Call us heretical if you like, but the 1517 Fund is dedicated to dispelling that paper illusion”. Can’t believe you can found a Ninety-Five Theses-based venture capital organization without mentioning the gematria perspective that “95” in Roman numerals is “VC”.
Inline links: The 1517 Fund