George Duke wrote on Thu, Oct 2, 2008 05:00 PM UTC:
Joyce constructs an interesting sentence, ''The concept of a next chess
is fascinating, precisely because it cannot/will not occur.'' Resistance
to change can be cliched or instructive. When Mad Queen emerged from
Chaturanga-Shatranj, Europe still used Roman numerals exclusively. ''Those
responsible for accounts wished to preserve the Roman system because, say
'v' added to 'iii' gave the sign 'viii', checkable for honesty or
accuracy, whereas 5 plus 3 gave '8', which as a sign bore no similarity
to '3' or '5'.'' Right after adoption of Hindu-Arabic numeral system,
during the 1540's came the sign '=', chosen '''bicause noe 2.
thynges, can be moare equalle' than such parallel lines.'' Switch from Roman to Hindu-Arabic occurred in Europe after Chaturanga-Shatranj had been transformed with Regina Rabiosa at Italy in
1490's. Chess may have led the way in some sense breaking cultural
deadlock beyond her accepted purview. --both quotations from Ivor Grattan-Guinness 'Norton History
of the Mathematical Sciences' 1997
