Why do "arabic numbers" look as they do, in the West?

I really think Mr. Fibonacci must have had something to do with it...and he was the one who could put two things together and come up with more than the sum of the two of them, forever...

Add any factor to what came before and get the New Creature...never any repetition or "rationality" involved, the most irrational theorem, it would have to be "nothingness" except that it is the basis for the shape of the Milky Way and a sea shell...and the little coils in our inner ear (3) that enable us to walk upright...I had acute labyrinthitis not long ago, all of a sudden "walking upright" was perceived by me to be the MIRACLE THAT IT IS...

Two ways to think...either everything is a miracle...or nothing is. The noble mind sees all things as wonderful and is lured on to "understand"...to doom no doubt, in the end. The bestial mind never thinks at all, just "feels"....too afraid of honest thought, no wonder, it will kill you...but what a way to go!

It was Fibonacci who recognized the superiority of the Hindi/Arab numeral system and he also introduced "zero" to the West, related to the word Cypher...(any Matrix fans out there?)

http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Fibonacci.html

To the Noble and the Bestial minds I will add the Religious Mind...the most destructive of all, seeing all things as either "good" or "evil"...saving the good and destroying the evil...but it pretty much boils down to an appetite for destruction...

I have been there, believe me I know what I'm talking about.

Well I didn't understand a word of what you were writing there, but one thing that might lead you to the solution to the question you stated in the header might be the following:

The Arabic and Asian cultures are a lot older and much more sophisticated than any western culture had ever been.
That is to say, when those guys already had acquired highly developed techniques and stuff for example in the medical field the western civilizations were still jumping around like the monkey-like humans you know from any ice-age movie.

..well might be a little exaggerated due to lack of knowledge but I'm sure you get the point.

Well, I really don't understand, shunammite, much of what you wrote either.

However, our numerals came via the Arabs from India.

And the al-Banna al-Marrakushi's form of the numerals (1082) indead looks very similar to ours, we use now:

Source: The Arabic numeral system

Leonardo Fibonacci introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals in 1202 AD in his book "Liber Abac"i. In some places in Italy it was forbidden to use anything but Roman numerals in the late 1200s and early 1300s. However, at the time of Columbus, most of Europe still used an abacus and Roman numerals. It was not until the 15th century that the European tradesman, merchants, and surveyors began to use Hindu-Arabic numerals.

I'm sorry my communication skills seem to fall short of what is required...but I'll try again.

In the link I posted in the first post...I'm not savvy enough to post the actual table here...but it's easy to look if you are willing to do your part to see what is puzzling me...the two examples of West and East Arab numerals each show an inverted "V" for the number 8.

And I want to know how it came to be an "8" in Europe. You gave me an Arab example that has our sort of "8", that's great...I did not see that on any of the links I looked at however. Not disputing you, but have you never seen this inverted "V" for "8"? Again, please look at the link.

It is a very different symbol and I wondered why. It had a "spiritual meaning" to me...

I come from a very religious background...that turned a bit toxic...and I think it was because people were so literal and never cared about meaning...

I realize "meaning" is a very subjective thing....maybe only something for private meditation....and it is important to "get the facts" straight...to be pure in observations...and let each mind interpret for themselves...

I feel a bit of annoyance with science also though...to be so occupied with "what is" and never asking "why"....maybe that's the road to perdition I heard tell of, like Pandora's box, lol...

Well anyway, the number 8 is significant in the bible, it's the "new creature"...circumsized on the 8th day...and the number 7 is "perfection" or completion...8 is like a fresh start...I was interested to see how in the Arab numbers they are inverse, graphically, of one another...V and upside down V...

That is another "spiritual principle"...that there is Something...that can never be Upended....the number "8" is like that....the same either way...

Thank you for sharing the knowledge you have with me.

Again: the Indians had no knowledge of the bible, and I sincerely doubt that the Arabs were influenced by "Christian symbolics" when they devolloped the writing of the numerals furtheron.

I am not suggesting that the Indians or the Arabs checked out the bible to see how to make an 8 lolol....

Perhaps I AM suggesting that some inner "guide to Truth" may have influenced such a thing.

But the chart on the link I posted shows the Arab "8" as an inverted "V"...

If it was an "8" in the year 1082, why did it change?

Another thought....I don't know whether a seven day week has always been used everywhere...certainly it is a "bible thing"...but months and years are decided by astronomy...and days of course. I guess we could have ten day "weeks" or something....I don't know if anyone ever did.

But if a seven day week is somehow "fixed" in the human psyche...then the number 8 as a symbol of "new beginning" would have a universal significance also, as the beginning of a new week. And the emergence of a symbol that was the same if you inverted it seems meaningful to me...as opposed to the older symbol, the inverted V.

To try to translate this "bible idea" in terms that might have meaning to a person who has no inclination in that direction....this "new creature" represents perfected understanding...as when you KNOW you are RIGHT, you cannot be confounded, you are able to neutralize any obstacle... I'm suddenly thinking of Hendrix's "Are You Experienced", lol...but when you've been through all that human experience has to offer, perhaps a new understanding emerges that cannot be "confounded"...

It has nothing to do with "science" as a person normally thinks of it...but "science" really offers no help as to meaning...came from nowhere, gone tomorrow, a bunch of chemical reactions...a healthy human mind cannot really feel that way....accept utter insignificance. Why endure pain, why struggle, why care...about anything....but we care, we all care.

However "science"....honest observation of phenomena and trying to fit all the pieces together...is just as holy as the bible to me...or as any great work of the human imagination...that came from the Gut. I cannot understand a mind that is not interested in the WHY of phenomena as well as the What... I CAN however understand a mind that keeps such thoughts to itself...outwardly one must get in step with some group and only speak the party line...or face plenty of scorn..."cast not your pearls before swine" is the "bible idea"...just because it's in the bible doesn't make it false though, lolol....

Who has Perfect Understanding while yet mortal? But the Idea exists, the thing we look for, that will bring peace...like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow... We can look with hope...or drink/eat/work a lot...or hate a lot...but that feeling must find expression somewhere.