Calculus

One of the most interesting things (to me at least… but then I geek out on Discovery) is the history of knowledge. So this morning when I saw something about Calculus being “fussed out” about 250 years earlier in India than it was in Europe caught my I and I sent it off to a colleague over in Math to see what he thought, as it turns out it was much the same. Myself, I was glad this made the news because it should be something that people have at least an appreciation of – that all knowledge didn’t come from Europe. On the downside – it encourages the “news byte” level of knowledge that is passing for depth these days.

After a bit of back and forth in the office, the entire experience reminds me that there are really very few absolutely original
ideas out there – ideas are as much about putting existing bits together into a system that makes it’s components accessible. In effect, great ideas are based on the story that explains how all the ideas came together.