If I have an object which humans refer to as a doughnut and I place it next to a similiar object which humans refer to as a doughnut, then I have objects (plural) which humans refer to as doughnuts (plural). Thats all. We could leave it at that. No matter how many objects which humans refer to as doughnuts are involved, there are still just doughnuts (plural). But humans, being the evolved, higher level thinking creatures we are, took it one step further. "Let's label and organize." we said, like a new girlfriend says of a precious record collection after three days of living in your dingy apartment. "Let's say if you have this many, it is called ONE. If there is another doughnut involved, lets call it TWO." And it went like this, until it spiraled out of control, eventually expanding into a ridiculously complex concept of infinite possibilities.
But math only exists in the mind. There are never TWO doughnuts or SEVEN doughnuts, or X doughnuts + doughnuts squared - doughnuts divided by doughnuts. There is simply flour and water and a little yeast, formed into a shape similiar to the moon with a hole in the center (names of shapes are man made too, so I can't say CIRCLE)
and some starches and a whole bunch of oil. There are SOME doughnuts. Simply put, numbers have been assigned for our convenience.
But here's what boggles my mind. This system we have created which is math,as fake as it is, simply works. It is the only man made concept which has been proven to work every single time, in any combination, for anyone who applies it correctly (which unfortunately discludes me). If you don't believe me, try to make 2+2 equal anything other than 4. Why couldn't we get Pythagoras or Newton to come up with a health care plan while he was at it? Maybe some foreign policy? If anything, anything, anything, worked with the consistency of math, we would second guess it as actually being man made.
So for as much as I hate math, I am also in awe of math. I respect math. It teeters on the edge of being God-esque. It is omnipresent, omniscient, infinite, intangible, and ironically enough, also man made...like doughnuts.
1 comment:
Ah yes, one step closer to nirvana in realizing that math is indeed one of the languages of nature, of life, of existence. Constant, unchanging, finite, rule-based, absolute. To understand fully it is to speak it fluently. Hence why our feeble minds have such a hard time grasping its concepts, rules, idiosynchracies, etc. If it were easy to understand, if ever we could fully grasp every concept and rule throughout its seemingly infinite depth, then we would be one step closer to having true mastery over nature. If we were to fully speak the language, we could then use it to manipulate it speakers - those 'speakers' being everything that defines existence as we know it. Such an occurance would have dire consequences on the balance of nature. The complexity of the subject is a balancing mechanism that keeps life in check.
Is it no wonder then that we, as humans, are inclined to interject similar 'balances' in our own governing bodies - albeit unknowingly, unconciously? For one branch to have too much mastery over another would be catastrophic to the system as a whole - the same way that any one life, or speicies, or population having too much mastery over another would have dire consequences for the balance of the biota in which it exists (point in case: invasive species wiping out indigenous species).
Granted, it begs the question: does math dictate nature, or does nature dictate math? Has nature's existence formed the rules of math, or are the rules of math so finite, so concrete, so indisputable, so constant, as to form the existence of nature? Would debating those very questions simply result in another form of a 'strange loop'?
It is everywhere around us - Fibonacci, exponential growth and decay, population growth/decline in response to various influencing factors such as birth rates, mortality, fecundity, and wait for it.......carrying capacity. It then begs the next question: Are humans as much a part of the mathematical absolutes as other species? Are we reaching our carrying capacity? What we know of mathematics would indicate we are. Is our passion and desire to understand, to exert mastery over, to manipulate mathematical priciples a last-ditch effort to finally achieve mastery over nature now that we see all other methods have been (or are nearly) exhausted?
So I guess the point is: don't feel bad about not understanding math. It's probably better for the world that you don't.
Oh, and don't even waste your time with chemistry...
Post a Comment