What Is Number?

Abstract

What is number? This question is difficult to answer. Because the number is one of the most basic concepts, it is difficult to define the natural number with other concepts. Still, this problem is worth trying to answer. Now, everything is digitized and processed on computer. The importance of the number is increasing day by day. Now is time to consider what number is. Throughout the history of humankind, the ancient Greeks considered this question most profoundly. In particular, Plato defined the natural number one. The natural number one is equal, invariable and indivisible. These properties are intuitively acceptable. However, we have never seen or touched the natural number one itself. How can we know it? Socrates said that we know it before birth. This claim is called anamnesis. In this paper, we use a method, in which Socrates’ anamnesis is studied by the contemporary science. From a modern viewpoint, we could take Socrates’ anamnesis to mean that the natural number one is written in our genes. This article considers whether there is a biological entity corresponding to the natural number one. As a result, we find that a life itself is the prototype of the natural number one, and then properties of life make a critical base of DNA similar to the natural number one through natural selection. A life is an integrated and indivisible system, which resists the law of entropy. Furthermore, the basic properties of life enable natural selection, which conserves genetic information despite the law of entropy. The source of the power, which enables life to resist the law of entropy, is the genetic information. In conclusion, a life is a prototype of the natural number one. Furthermore, a life recognizes nature using natural numbers and resists the law of entropy using natural numbers.