New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[warellis]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Riffing off LeGuin some more for my space setting, I plan to introduce Cetian Mathematics, though I'll give it another name. In LeGuin's Hainish novels, the Cetians are a human group that was settled on a planet called Centaurus. They developed a form of mathematics that surpasses any Terran mathematics the same way the Hindu-Arabic numbers surpass Roman numerals. Thus with their mathematics Mathematics is a mental hard skill rather than a mental very hard skill. It's simply easier to do and think math using Cetian mathematics.

Was there a reason it wasn't developed prior to the Celtians? Just no one had thought of it?