| The awareness of Space as a container is a fundamental and important existential concept
because it is in Space that the adventure of matter unfolds. The static and dynamic importance of the containership property of space
can be summarized with the concepts of Quantity, Direction and Distance ( QDD).
Quantity asks, "how many?", or "how much?" The development of these questions over the centuries helped establish the concept of numbers.
Direction asks, "which way?", and Distance asks, "how far?" The development of these questions over the centuries helped establish the concept
of shapes. The first humans became aware that space is a container soon after they occupied space. They knew that they were in something bounded by the sky they saw above them and the earth upon which they stood. They knew that the something contained animals and trees that bore the fruits they ate. They also knew that the something contained streams and ponds from which they could get water to quench their thirst. We do not know what they call this something (the word space came from their modern descendants), we do know that they often trekked long distances in varied directions in search of animals and fruits which they needed for sustenance. Sometimes , their movements were largely caused by unfavorable weather conditions. Their nomadic experience improved their sense of direction and distance. It also provided |
| them with information about dangerous routes. Their experience in procreation,
hunting and food gathering improved their sense of quantity. The logistical problem of traveling with an increasingly large family size was simply solved by leaving most members of the family in a
designated area while a few specific members (the hunters) undertook the long and oftentimes dangerous trek in search of food.
This arrangement was so successful that it became the forerunner of small ancient communities. A community, no matter its size, is a system of political, economical and social activities. Its prosperity depends on efficient implementation and accounting of these activities. So it is not surprising that ancient humans were able to eventually extract QDD from their awareness and experience of the containership property of space. By so doing, they set the stage for the two greatest human inventions: counting and construction. The establishment of small ancient communities brought about primitive counting. Ancient counting was simple. The materials to be counted were matched or associated with another material, the counter which successively represented an inceasing magnitude of the material being counted. A key characteristic of the counter was that it had to be manageable. So the fingers and simple materials such as small sticks and pebbles, were commonly used. For example, a person who wanted to indicate the number of cows in |
| his possession would do so by counting his fingers and stopping when the number
of fingers matched the number of cows in his possession. The toes were used for further representation when the fingers
were not enough to represent the material being counted. Primitive counting evolved as ancient communities grew. Techniques such as grouping evolved
and eventually number systems were developed and established. What counting was to numbers, construction was to shapes. Like counting, construction evolved from ancient humans' awareness and experience of the containership property of space. Ancient humans cleared bushes to construct primitive paths for their treks. They constructed primitive weapons to hunt their prey. As their communities grew and became more developed, they constructed roads, homes, granaries, better weapons, etc. By about 3800 B.C, knowledge of construction had developed so as to allow the Sumerian civilization to build fishing boats and to invent the wooden wheel at about 3500 B.C. When we add the concept of matter to the concept of the containership property of Space, we have the fundamental concepts needed to analyze the adventure of matter in Space. Peter O. Sagay |
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| Let us use our environment respectfully so that future generations would not label us"prodigal ancestors" |
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