二进制算术与文化探赜

Research on the Binary Arithmetic and Culture

二进制算术是计算机科学的数学基础,实际上在许多文化中,早已不自觉地运用了二进制。莱布尼茨并非现代二进制的首创者,但他最初探讨二进制并最终获得优先权,文化因素起了关键性作用。多元文化中的二进制现象以及二进制发展中的文化现象,反映了数学与文化之间的密切关系。

The binary arithmetic is the base of computer science. In fact the binary system is characteristic of many different cultures, and a pristine kind of binary system still exists in some countries and regions. Actually the modern binary was not created by Leibniz. Leibniz originally studied the binary mainly in order to demonstrate his ideas of philosophy or theology, and his binary was accepted by the academy because it could explain the Primordial Hexagrams’ order. For this he won the priority of the binary system invention. This is a case in point to show the great influence culture exerted in the history of science. The phenomenon of the binary in multi-cultures and the cultural phenomenon in the development of the binary system have, in some extent, reflected the dialectic relation between mathematics and culture.