"I am reminded of one of the many stories mathematicians tell each other after all nonmathematicians leave the room. A mathematician at a famous university went to look around the new auditorium, and when she got there, she found the dean of the faculty staring at the ceiling and muttering to himself, "...forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven..." Naturally she interrupted the count to find out what it was for. "I'm counting the lights," said the dean. The mathematician looked up at the perfect rectangular array of lights and said, "That's easy, there are ... twelve that way, and ... eight that way. Twelve eights are ninety-six." "No, no," said the dean impatiently. "I want the exact number."
Even when it comes to something as simple as counting, we mathematicians see the world differently from other folk."
People the world over see things differently, but I find that more often than not mathematicians/scientists see the world in a similar way to each other, but in a totally different way to an artist or a musician.
I wonder why we see things differently. Do we see things differently because of our different interests? Or are we interested in different things because we see things differently?
It's like the chicken and the egg saga. Which comes first? Is it instilled in us from birth? Are we genetically programmed to be like we are? Do environmental factors play a part at all?
I don't know the answers, but it does make interesting thinking. For me anyway. But is that because I'm a mathematician? I have no idea if an artist would find this idea interesting or not.
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