Words and Numbers:
Defining and Solving Problems
Communication and calculation are the bedrock of civilization. We use symbols (words and numbers) to map out our intentions and assess our success at achieving our goals. We use words to represent, name, identify, and indicate the relative magnitude (the more or less) of something. We use numbers to understand the many ness of something (how many) so that we can divide up the eggs, water rights, days, and bushels of wheat. Up to four or five thousand BC, words and numbers were literally one in the same. Twenty sheep might be called a bload; the number was not abstracted from the sheep. But with the advent of commerce and production quotas and agreements, humans had to devise ways of adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying--and also learn to keep records. Counting on the fingers, one, two, three, four...produced a one-to-one mapping which "abstracted" the number word from the finger word. One, two, three, and four could stand alone.
Next time you are in the bathroom or at the medical clinic, take a look at the scale used to measure how much you weigh. Notice that it has a name--a scale, that it indicates the more or less of something (pounds), that these pounds are counted as equal units (numbers) and that at some point the scale starts at zero, or nothing. All scientific scales have these characteristics. The last characteristic, zero (nothing of the thing being counted), was added around 800 AD and became commonplace around 1600 AD. Without zero we cannot create ratios. Without zero, I could not say I have half as many marbles as you do.
Along this line you need to remember that many of the ideas taught to you are not scientific, or even have much to do with predicting your success at achieving your goals. Most of what we know of emotions, intelligence, talents, and feelings is no more sophisticated than more or less, and using numbers to create countable units of emotions and intelligence is silly. Further, we use language and numbers to describe groups--to understand how to define the commons or the common good. We expect individuals to know what is in their best interests. When we plan for a group, we have to set down the language and numbers (the contracts) which maintain our interest in the common good.
Symbols (words and numbers plus their grammars and systems) have four obvious purposes. Symbols allow us to express ourselves, to explain our worlds, to amuse ourselves, and to control ourselves and others. Meta symbols, or symbols about symbols, allow us to improve the clarity, explanatory power, and efficiency of our basic symbols. Thus we have words like positive integer and noun to identify the millions of instances of three sheep and their like.
The Assignment
Your tasks this week are:
Using some arithmetic, report how many people the world's current levels of energy production could support at your rate of energy consumption (an average US citizen). Keep it simple. Figure that the world currently produces nearly 500 quads (quadrillion) BTU's (British Thermal Units) of energy and that America consumes about 100 quads. Assume your current level of consumption (an average US Citizen) is the standard. Report the current statistics for consumption and population (both world and US). Use a population clock on the web; use a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Show your calculation. Identify your sources. Remember to read the notes.
Also,
Using the World Fact Book, browse the maps and statistics for Afghanistan, India, Iran, The United States, China, Sudan, and Mexico. Report their total fertility rates and infant mortality rates listed in the World Fact Book. Explain what you find most interesting about the statistics.