Don't Hate Math Because Of What Arithmetic Did To You!
When someone says, "I hate math.", what is actually being said is almost always, "I hate arithmetic."
Now, see here!
Arithmetic is the counting of beans and the chopping of
onions. Hate it all you want but, it's there and you'll die without it
- if you can't do the math to keep track of money, keep gas in your car
long enough to get to the next station, pay for the gas and the food
you're driving around to get - you are screwed.
Arithmetic is
exact, it is black or white, on or off, and it does not forgive, nor
does it entice - some animals (some primates, elephants, some cetations,
a horse or dog here & there) can cognitively process counting, set
analysis (identifying which group is bigger), and maybe some rudimentary
addition and subtraction skills - arithmetic is an evolved skill, and
those creatures without it are at the mercy of the rest.
I
loathe arithmetic - it's boring and it's frustrating. To make one little
mistake; adding when I should have subtracted, mis-managing a decimal
point, forgetting not to divide by zero can result in a false statement,
like the one that cost me $3000.00 because the IRS wouldn't forgive my
mistake of putting a wrong number on a wrong line, which caused it not
to add up properly... Or worse, I need food like a junkie needs junk,
and bad arithmetic could have me standing in line somewhere, hoping the
free meal won't run out before I get some - and I don't want to live
like that! Good Grief! Even describing arithmetic bores me stupid, so
I'll quit right now, and write about something really interesting, what
math really is - language.
Mathematics is the Rosetta stone of
any and all relationships; it is not just a language, it is the language
which lexically and syntactically liaises any and all other languages -
including itself! Whenever a new language evolves, mathematics must
evolve in order to bind it. Often, mathematics can be held responsible
for creating languages.
If we think of the pace of the
development of humanity through recorded history in terms of a man
walking down a road, Albert Einstein pretty much invented the De Lorean
and handed it over. He did not express himself through intricate
mathematical constructions, though he used them to prove what he said -
he told stories about trains and lights and people who lived in a flat
land, and most of his stories did not contain arithmetic. Einstein did
not invent the mathematics which described energy/matter conversion, he
used Newton's mechanics, Leibniz' calculus, Euler's differential
equations, and his own intuition and internal narrative to derive and
prove e=mc^2 which spawned a whole new set of languages that changed the
world - some of those languages, quantum mechanics for instance, he
disputed almost until the end of his life. I wonder what he would think
of M-theory or the quantum computers Google & Lockheed / Martin are
tinkering with as I write this.
And, I don't just mean the
relationships between abstracted, esoteric languages like translating
from electromagnetic theory to hydraulic or music theory, I mean
translating between English, relational calculus, linear algebra,
discrete analysis, and Japanese - which is what happens when I use
Google translate or when I call Samsung and talk to their border-bots.
These evolved languages have taught machines to listen and respond so
well that, sometimes (more often that, of late) humans are having
trouble telling the difference - my youngest child will be 13 in
December, this technology almost did not exist when she was born.
Another technology, fMRI is able to translate between thought and
identity - if I think of a hammer, the fMRI reads my neurological
processes, shunts the data to a computer; the computer analyzes the data
and a picture of a hammer is displayed - that, my friend, is
communication via unspoken language. Coupled with quantum computing,
machine learning may become essentially a telepathic process. The kind
of mathematics this requires I cannot even describe because I don't know
enough of the language to do so, some sort of weird complex analysis,
I'm sure - hopefully I'll be able to know, someday.
So, hate
arithmetic all you want! But know it - because knowing how to use it
will improve your life immensely - and allow you to learn the math,
while not knoing it will isolate you from vast realms of knowledge, also
not having decent arithmetic skills can kill you. You may not want to
know anything about esoteric mathematics; the power and beauty its
applications manifests into the world, (your body and brain actually
know a of 'natural' mathematics already but, that's a different post) -
you're OK my book - lots of folks like to wing it, do great work without
it, and I can dig it.
Here are the equations for everything I just said,
Arithmetic = Necessary = Sucky = Suck It Up
Mathematics = the Language of Language
Machines <- -="" language=""> People
The final equation in lolcatmath
Universe Sez: IF {haz arithmetic} THEN {can haz math} ELSE {kthxdie}
OK, I'm done - now I have to go out into the head and do stuff.
posted by b at 10:25 AM
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