Ethiopian Shaman knew binary math back in 1940

reply to post by benrl


If we didnt relate it to computers it would be considered silly and inefficient, which using the human mind the method employed is.

Used in the context that it is, it is in no way clever and in fact quite the opposite.
Clever to me is using the most efficient means possible, to be honest I see it at kinda patronising that you all think its great. It almost comes across like "look at these savages, using computing techniques without even knowing haha"

Whichever way you look at it the method as employed by the shaman is silly

IkNOwSTuff
reply to post by benrl

 

If we didnt relate it to computers it would be considered silly and inefficient, which using the human mind the method employed is.

Used in the context that it is, it is in no way clever and in fact quite the opposite.
Clever to me is using the most efficient means possible, to be honest I see it at kinda patronising that you all think its great. It almost comes across like "look at these savages, using computing techniques without even knowing haha"

Whichever way you look at it the method as employed by the shaman is silly

Did you check out the vid especially the 1st one..what you are not recognizing is there were many different ways of problem solving than the one we are used to that seemed just as natural and efficient as our system is to us.

The ancient Egyptians did not multiply but used doubling, a simple form of
addition to accomplish any integer multiplication. Here is an example.

to multiply 56 times 73 you take the larger number, 73. Line it up with the
number 1:
You can get any integer by 2 ----- 146 Keep doubling the 73.
adding powers of 2. 4 ----- 292
8 ----- 584
16 ----- 1168 Notice that 32 + 16 + 8 is
32 ----- 2336 56

56 times 73 is gotten by adding 2336 + 1168 + 584 = 4088.

The ancient Egyptians used unit fractions (fractions with a numerator of
1) with the sole exception of 2/3. This is a less comfortable way to deal with
fractions than the Mesopotamian unified place–value notation. They had
extensive tables for reducing fractions with numerators larger than 1 to unit
fractions. We find tables of fractions as well as problems involving them in the
Rhind papyrus written about 1650 B.C.E by the scribe Ahmose. Egyptian
writing, when not on stone monuments, ivory or wood, was on papyrus which was
used as far back as the first dynasty, around 3100 B.C.E. This material rots in
humid conditions, so the documentation in Egypt is less than in Mesopotamia.
In the Rhind Papyrus we find Ahmose using the splitting algorithm to
create tables of unit fractions equivalent to other fractions:
You can get any integer by 2 ----- 146 Keep doubling the 73.
adding powers of 2
! 2
n = 2
n + 1+ 2n(n + 1)
, where we assume n is an odd numb

mathserver.neu.edu...

And going back even further in time...at-least 20kyrs ago we have the Ishango Bones from Zaire Great Lakes region with a system of doubling. not saying one system is superior over another just different.
prezi.com...

IkNOwSTuff
It doesnt seem advanced or clever to me, in fact it just seems stupid.

He dug 7 holes and then droop at least 400 pebbles in them.
Why not just dig 34 holes, 1 for each sheep, and then drop 7 pebbles in each????

IMO this is just another way of those with power trying to make themselves look smarter or better than those they have power over. if he can count to 238 Im fairly certain he could understand basic multiplication

The two parties to the deal wanted someone who was impartial and whose opinion would be legally binding and respected without going to court. Shaman is the closest person they had to an adjudicator.

Doing long division with stones would be the simplest way of letting each person visualise their side of the deal. Making holes would risk pebbles disappearing. So they just create a flat grid to let everyone see the calculation in progress. It's two steps before an abacus and one step before wooden notch sticks or loops in strings.

It has some practical uses. Provided you have the dexterity, you can count to 1024 just with your fingers. (2^10) Something you can't readily do with the decimal method. I guess if you mentally know how to do the shifts, some other math is fast too.

This article might give another idea of how some things worked...
en.wikipedia.org...

Also keep in mind that math for variations of abacus can also be different than base 10. And those are ancient tech too. It's pretty cool and clever considering how well some "primitive" methods of doing math work.

justreleased
reply to post by MerkabaMeditation

 

Why can't they feed themselves?

I mean if they can do advanced math why can't they plant corn or build computers like the rest of the world?

Because, the white man wont let them, he say no no

Broom
reply to post by supermarket2012

 

Lack of natural resources. If the United States was there in Africa, it too would lack a lot of natural resources, and have inhospitable weather. There are some things man has no control of.

Yeah, just think of south africa for example where there are 5 million European descendents living with power stations, hospitals, motorways...and everything you can imagine.

If you want to talk about advanced math in Africa maybe you should talk about the Dogon tribe, apparently the mask strapped to their head shows the orbit of a planet around a star in the Sirius system where they got their advanced science from....but the live in mud huts, are poor, have invented nothing, can barely feed themselves...but don't let that fool you, really they are very advanced!

Ahaa Luxus luxus Luxus thou art ever the constantly the uninformed one..the Dogon are not under fed ,the mask they are wearing is called the Kananga mask has nothing to do with Sirius or maths per-say but genius that you are you can't even type in Dogon mask in a search engine before posting.."sigh"....

Kananga masks form geometric patterns. These masks represent the first human beings and are normally made by carvers of the Awa society. The masks are worn during the Dama dancing ceremonies The Dogon believe that the Dama dance creates a bridge into the supernatural world. Without the Dama dance, the dead cannot cross over into peace.

www.rebirth.co.za...

They live how their ancestors lived and are just fine with that, they as far as I know are not migrating en mass for life in the big city,they escaped the Malian empire builders by building cliff dwellings for defense much like the Anazai of the The Four Corners a region of the United States the southwestern corner of Colorado, northwestern corner of New Mexico, northeastern corner of Arizona and southeastern corner of Utah did for the same reasons. whose descendants live in Pueblos to day a form of architecture adopted by moderns all over the western states to date. btw the ancient Kemites as well as some modern Egyptians live in such dwellings..dressed stones reserved for the upper crusties or temples.

Adobe architecture Arizona

Wait a minute are you not from Arizona??

South Africa is a modern state..you can find the same type of sky line in most major cities in Africa.

It would make sense that the Ethiopians having had contact with the Egyptians would have kept or preserved the Egyptian mathematical methods.

The Egyptian mathematics was in fact a form of "binary".

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by Spider879


Don't pretend you haven't heard this rubbish about the Dogons having advanced knowledge about the 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, and yes I watched a documentary in which this fool was claiming that this advanced knowledge was encoded in their dance, he claimed that a guy swinging his head around with a long mask was imitating the orbit of a planet...and no I obviously do not believe it, and I never wasted my money on his book either!

Broom
reply to post by supermarket2012

 

Lack of natural resources. If the United States was there in Africa, it too would lack a lot of natural resources, and have inhospitable weather. There are some things man has no control of.

What? Africa has some of the richest natural resources in the world: oil, gold, diamonds, etc. When Zimbabwe was Rhodesia, it was the breadbasket of the continent with some of the richest farmland in the world. The problem is not "lack of resources" but a continent of kleptocratic and socialist countries still wrapped in primitive tribalism.

LUXUS
reply to post by Spider879

 

Don't pretend you haven't heard this rubbish about the Dogons having advanced knowledge about the 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, and yes I watched a documentary in which this fool was claiming that this advanced knowledge was encoded in their dance, he claimed that a guy swinging his head around with a long mask was imitating the orbit of a planet...and no I obviously do not believe it, and I never wasted my money on his book either!

First off I don't think it's rubbish they lived within the orbit of the University of Timbuktu that taught astronomy if in fact they did not make that discovery on their own,the fact that you think little of African knowledge to even pick up a gatdamm book and learn a lil sum sum reflects very badly on YOU!!!..in any case they have that Sigi Festival

Another extraordinary event of the Dogon people is the Sigi festival. It is a the most important animist ritual celebrated every sixty years. Given the Dogon’s cosmology, it has been considered to coincide with the apparition of the Sirius B or Dog star.

www.dogoncountry.com...
In any case I won't participate in disrupting this thread with stuff about the Dogon when it's about Ethiopians.

IDNeon
It would make sense that the Ethiopians having had contact with the Egyptians would have kept or preserved the Egyptian mathematical methods.

The Egyptian mathematics was in fact a form of "binary".

www.youtube.com...

They need not learnt it directly from the ancient Kemetians as they shared the same cultural incubators meaning the Sahara the Great lakes and the Horn like I said other Africans shared the same binary math with them,if there is a common source then it may well be from the folks who carved the Ishango bones of Zaire at about 20kyrs B.C

reply to post by MerkabaMeditation


So an Ethiopian discovers it 309 years after the West.... What's your point?

reply to post by ziplock9000

After the west??..care to quantify that??.