July 27, 2006
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Number Sense
The NY lottery numbers for yesterday, 7/26, Jung’s birthday, were 726 (mid-day) and 970 (evening).
We may view these numbers as representing the Jungian “sheep” and Freudian “goats” of yesterday’s entry Partitions.
For
the Jungian coincidence of 726 with 7/26, recall the NY lottery number 911 that
was drawn on 9/11 exactly a year after the destruction of the World
Trade Center. For more on this coincidence, see For Hemingway’s Birthday: Mathematics and Narrative Continued (July 21, 2006).For
970, Google reveals a strictly skeptical (i.e., like Freud, not Jung) meaning: 970 is the
first page of the article “Sources of Mathematical Thinking,” in Science, 7 May 1999: Vol. 284. no. 5416, pp. 970 – 974.That article has
been extensively cited in the scholarly literature on the psychology of
mathematics. Its lead author, Stanislas Dehaene, has written a
book, The Number Sense.What sense, if any, is made by 726 and 970?
The mid-day number again (see Hemingway’s birthday) illustrates the saying
“Time and chance happeneth to them all.”
The evening number again illustrates the saying
“Though truth may be very hard to find in the pages of most books, the page numbers are generally reliable.”
– Steven H. Cullinane,
Zen and Language GamesThese sayings may suit the religious outlook of Susan Blackmore,
source (along with Matthew 25:31-46) of the sheep/goats partition in yesterday’s entry on that topic. She herself, apparently a former sheep, is now a goat practicing Zen.Update of later the same evening–
On Space, Time, Life, the Universe, and Everything:Note that the “sheep” number 726 has a natural interpretation as a
date– i.e., in terms of time, while the “goat” number 970 has an
interpretation as a page number– i.e., in terms of space.
Rooting, like Jesus and St. Matthew, for the sheep, we may interpret
both of today’s NY lottery results as dates, as in the next entry, Real Numbers. That entry may (or may not) pose (and/or answer) The Ultimate Question. Selah.
