Outsider Logic

In his August 14th journal entry, David Byrne makes mention of an interview with outsider logician Shea Zellweger, inventor of the Logic Alphabet. While working as a switchboard operator in the 1950's, he set about developing a new system for notating logic, which takes the former (and present) three-connector system using "and", "if", and "if...then...", and replaces it with a set of 16 symbols, most of which can be inverted, flipped, and turned to read as another symbol in the alphabet, and which lend themselves to geometric configurations, best illustrated in three dimensions. I myself, know nothing of the subject, but find it fascinating. The whole Froebel/Montessori parallel is interesting as well. Froebel and Montessori, "who founded the Kindergarten movement and the Montessori school system, respectively. Both believed that higher-level conceptual thought should be preceded by concrete hands-on play with geometric forms embodied in solid materials."

Though ultimately less loaded with function, this makes me think of the Soma Cube. Something I came across in my youth, when a friend of the family gave me The 2nd Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles & Diversions and his Soma set, made from children's building blocks glued together. I found the Soma Cube to be both challenging and fun, and much more accessible than Rubik's Cube, which always seemed kind of pointless and hopeless to me. This book also contained a chapter on Phi: The Golden Ratio, which I found inspirational. Its appearance throughout the natural world and in art, in my eyes, immediately embued it with magical powers.