The Tally System and Roman Numericals

Roman numerals evolve from tally marks, or tokens or stones. Both archimedes and apollonius got close to inventing versal system of recording numbers but failed. David writes about how archimedes probably did notice the universality of his system, but chose not to allow it for bizarre reasons. Enlightenment philosophers such as locke set out to free political institutions from arbitrary rules and assumptions. The arbitrary exception to any of these fundamental universal principles are the very thing that is going to stop progress.