On Fri, 11 Dec 1998, Alan Kay wrote:

> There's a catch, though. The creoles that the children come up with are
> real languages, but not in the extended sense of mathematics. Math doesn't
> seem to be as built in as mundane uses of language, and that's likely why
> math (and its big brother, science) had to be invented. In order to
> bootstrap human thought, we have to do as much invention of math and
> science cum computer for children as possible, and not rely on them to just
> get it right from our fragments ...

Math doesn't seem to be built in. Neither does counting.
Unfortunately, neither does writing.

-- Mike

P.S. I'm a little dismayed at the "You can't teach an old dog new tricks"
theme that has been running through this thread.  Learn & stay young.

"Music is the joy the of the soul experiencing counting without counting"
-- Paraphrase of Liebnitz???