Comment on Isn't it convenient that the alphabet is in alphabetical order.

TheOneWithTheHair@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• someguy3@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Numbers have a logical order. The alphabet is effectively random, but we take this random sequence so seriously we take it as a definition.

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  • TheOneWithTheHair@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “Effectively Random” how? Every culture for more than 2,000 years have structured their sequence.

    I. We have given letters a hierarchy since early times. Christ said he was the Alpha and Omega, meaning the beginning and end, as those were the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. This structure was true then and now.

    II. The Romans used letters as numbers. I V X L C M D – long before ASCII assigned letters numerical values.

    III. If your argument is that we could have chosen to load the beginning with vowels and then the end with letters, well, we didn’t have alphabetical order until we placed the letters in sequence. If we “randomly chose” a different sequence, then that sequence would have been our alphabetical order. The Greek Z is Zeta, not Omega.

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    • someguy3@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      then that sequence would have been our alphabetical order

      That’s what I’m saying and that’s the whole point. Numbers can’t be rearranged like that (bases are interesting).

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      • Arrakis@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        TL;DR wooooooosh

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• Arrakis@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Mind. Blown.

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