My latest post did not mention surreal numbers, which were invented 1974. I am sorry, but I did not know about them until now. My studies in calculus terminated in 1969. I am not confused though. If we define something "as the rest", there will be problems. Linnaeus classified plants by looking at their flowers and seeds. However, a lot of plants lack genital organs. He classified these as "cryptogams", and I don't think he liked them, especially not litchens. To a modern paleontologist, the cryptogams may be more interesting than the sexual plants. This is the consequence of leaving a rest when you classify.
If surrealistic numbers will be the future of mathematics, I can't tell, The inventor of SN is a famous computer scientist, whom I first met in MAD magazine in 1957. It was an article on metrology. The man has phantasy, humour and a sound distance to science. By distance I mean like a painter beholding his piece of art from some steps away.
Knuth. The inventor of surreal numbers.
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