Thread: What was the first number?

Originally Posted by Xei

I'd say different. The idea of 1 on its own serves no purpose at all. I think the natural numbers would have all been developed simultaneously. Most likely they would have been a small set at first; I'd hazard a fairly certain guess at 10 (a different word for each finger).

The concept of numbers of numbers (such as ten tens, as is used in our modern number system) probably came quite a bit later.

Negatives and rationals would have come next, although it's hard to say in which order. Some of the reals probably came after that (root 2 or pi first)... 0 came quite a bit later. Then e. After that there were the imaginary and complex numbers, probably on the same day. After that came quaternions, finishing with the development of group theory and the generalisation of the concept of number.

Remember... I am not talking about symbols. I am talking about what the symbols represent.