Monday, April 18, 2005
(3:20 PM) | Anonymous:
Essay this!
It is an old adage that numbers do not lie, that within numbers lies the truth. How can we best access this truth, however? This question and others have riddled mankind since the discovery of counting. When this discovery took place is unknown, since the application of counting to recording dates and time didn't occur until some time after the discovery of counting itself (though how long after, of course, we do not know).Nevertheless, several proposals have been proposed by mathematicians attempting to sup the sweet artichoke heart of truth, without being pricked by the thistles of lying falseness. Perhaps certain numbers have a higher share of truth than others, and by combining them through addition or multiplication, and then subtracting out the numbers with a lesser proportion of truth, we may, as it were, "sweat" out the sweet sweet truth from within its hard candy coating of lies. This method was favored by ancient geometers in determining the value of π, but it is unclear how to go from π--which is, after all, just another number, perfect though it may be--to the truth of π. The truth of pie.
Other methods attempted through the ages include sorting through the numbers and retaining only those with exceptionally high truth content, and then forcing these through increasingly fine meshes which retain truth and let lies through, known as the Sieve of Eratosthenes, and the calculus, in which the summation of the many infinitesimal kernels of truth that underlie all truly successful lies is thought to result in a truth of appreciable size. It is said that "calculus", which means "little stone" in Greek, is so named because Leibniz experienced an epiphany one day when passing a kidney stone: the little deposits of calx, though small in and of themselves, were capable of becoming amassed into a form capable of causing appreciable pain, just as calculus asserts small deposits of truth are joined together to form one big truth.
These have been the chief methods attempted through the ages. However, not one of them has been wholly satisfactory. Perhaps what we need to do, is to investigate the adage itself, for while it asserts that numbers do not lie, it is silent on the question of its own truth-telling. If a statement does not assert of itself either that it is or is not false, it is impossible to know what to make of it! In particular worth investigation is the conjunction of claims that "numbers do not lie", and that "within numbers lies truth". First of all, if within numbers lies truth, perhaps what we need to do is merely believe the opposite of what a number says! But it is hard to see how to reconcile that with the first claim. Maybe it just means that numbers have lying hearts, but they'll be true to their lover anyway.
In conclusion, the question of truth in numbers is a vexed question. Perhaps it will never be answered.
