Also kind of crazy how long “but that’s the way we’ve always done it” can remain the dominant system, despite a revolutionary change being so trivially achievable. This required absolutely no technological advancement, literally just putting a little more space between letters to reduce ambiguity.
English is good example. It has not been fixed for long while. Even if there would be so many better ways to write certain words.
I feel like Mathematical notation is also a great example (since Math is ultimately a separate language: the language of measurement)
It's been built up over centuries where new innovations and shifts in perspective often create new kinds of notation, but those most frequently just get tacked onto whatever else is already standard and the new notations almost never actually supplant the old.
AFAICT we haven't really had a big shift in fundamental mathematical notation in Europe (and its colonies) since Roman Numerals (CXXIII) gave way to Arabic (123) numerals four hundred years ago. 8I
> AFAICT we haven't really had a big shift in fundamental mathematical notation in Europe (and its colonies) since Roman Numerals (CXXIII) gave way to Arabic (123) numerals four hundred years ago. 8I
Your history is a little confused. Arabic numerals came into use in Europe as early as the 13th century (introduced by Leonardo Fibonacci), but most other mathematical notation like "=" or or "√" didn't show up until the 16th or 17th century.
Imagine if it Turned Out that Capitalizing Various Words made Things more Readable. How Quickly Would That be Adopted?
Do you speak German? A language famous for capitalizing its nouns of course.