On this day, before one of those days that will be written about, perhaps in history books, I thought it would be appropriate to write about something totally unrelated, as usual.
Did you know that 5 is 0% of 1024? That's how much of my storage space I'm using in this blog.
This is the lie that statistics brings you on your computer desktop.
It is a lie of scale. We live in an age when fractal scaling is all important to our survival, but it is ignored. The miracle of humans is that they can comprehend massive scale discrepancies, as between a universe and a pea.
But in a practical sense, we ignore it. For example, just how many organisms are living on your skin right now? We ignore this gracefully.
This is why, when the computer tells us that 5 is 0% of 1024, our brains flash WRONG. And then we go on with life. But, what are the implications?
If 5 is 0% of 1024, then what is 6?
Something tells me that this is the way the bacteria living on our skins, really want it. Scale, scale is the reality that is invisible to us. How many ppm of mercury is in the fish that you ate last week? Is it 0%?
This, on the day before we will be counting numbers and demanding perfect accuracy. It may mean the end of the world.
