Math and Design, Human Race and the Internet

What are two things I find amazing?

One is this: count 1-10, count 0-100 in tens, count 0-100 in hundreds. Our mathematical system. I wonder a) how someone came up with it and b) if there is a mathematical system that is even better. Right now our numbers could all be displayed on a single axis. But what if all numbers were displayed on a three dimensional axis? Our entire basis for math would change. I mean there are x, y, z axis--but I'm thinking using that as the basis of the math we teach off the bat.

The other is the fact that mathematicians are doing a better and better job of quantifying the beauty and creation of design. I am just blown away by the fact that design has consistently been so ahead of mathematicians. 300 years ago mathematicians could explain any design. The celebrated design and art of that era is still beautiful today. And 300 years from now it will be the same. The celebrated artists of today will be celebrated again 300 years from now.

But that isn't too many more than a couple artists per century. What happened to all the others? And now in the digital age will that change? How will digital art or literature (photo blogs, written blogs, search terms, youube, yahoo personalls) be documented? We need to make it illegal to delete that stuff. We will have a nearly perfect history of the human race after the advent of the internet. The storefronts of the 1500's rotten away a long time ago. But what if we could preserve the internet of today 500 years from now.