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sounds_sound · 4458 days ago · link · · parent · post: The American Scholar: Babies Bamboozled by Numbers - Jessica Love
Radiolab has a fantastic episode on numbers. At one point they talk specifically about an infants innate understanding of scales. The interesting thing is that newborns perceive numbers algorithmically first, rather than additive, which is to say that after the number three they will jump to the number nine as opposed to four. I think humans are genetically wired to sense larger distinctions of patterns once a collection grows beyond 2 or 3. It's fascinating how something like prime numbers, which now feels so logical and true and platonic, are just another guess at an approximating system.