[topaz0]

Most commenters are talking about the first part of the post, which lays out how you might construct the complex numbers if you're interested in different properties of them. I think the last bit is the real interesting substance, which is about how to think about things like this in general (namely through structuralism), and why the observations of the first half should not be taken as an argument against structuralism. Very interesting and well written.

[Traster]

It is very re-assuring to know, on a post where I can essentially not even speak the language (despite a masters in engineering) HN is still just discussing the first paragraph of the post.