A world without Numbers.

After a tired day of working, I chose to go to a nearby temple on a modest hill. Surrounded by taller mountains, the pagoda, was the main attraction of the temple. I could see the treetops, just at my eye level. There was no wind. The highway was nearby, disturbing the silence by noise of cars at discrete intervals. And mind, spontaneously started to count them. One two three four, it looked natural the counting. Hence natural numbers. But when I looked at trees, I saw them experiencing another world. An analogue world without discrete numbers. I wonder what the world would be like if it is just analogue. Are we heading for this with quantum computers?

Discrete

This is not just imagination. We just passed an era of analogue world. Few centuries back, when the mathematics was rudimentary, it was considered to be used by people of intelligence. For someone to survive the world counting was not a necessary skill. Being able to see hear and move would be enough. Yet today we have branched out so much that, some of us spend our entire lives just by counting. And My God! some who do not know how to count would pay, a statistician a fair sum of money just for the counting. Numbers are not only important, but They also mean survival. One has to be prepared to shiver in cold when its winter, if they did not learn how to count. So, everybody counts nowadays.

Imagine a world without numbers.

You would wake up, when it is sun up above the horizon, like you were supposed to do. You would have odd, or even number of pieces of bread, yet you would not count them. Instead, you would be focused on the feeling of your stomach to know what is enough. Definitely you would not know how "MUCH" calories you have taken. Then, once you are ready you would walk out of your house, for work. You will work, for whatever amount of time it takes to finish the job. You would be paid by your work, not by your hour. And the amount you receive would be something which can fill your stomach, enough for some time, as there would be no money without counting. You would be happy even if you get one piece of bread, or ten pieces of bread, as you have no means of knowing which heap is bigger. Except you may remember from last time and think its larger. You may feel happy walking, and each and every day the distance you travel would feel different depending on your level of tiredness. As there is no way of knowing exactly how much you travel. Hence distance although same would be fundamentally different each and every day.

Flight of a Kite

An analogue world

The supper would be when you feel hungry, not at 8. The progress of your life and success would not depend on an imaginary number in your bank. It would depend on what you see, feel and hear during the day. Hence, you will have more time to think about the little pleasures you miss, as you are not bounded by imaginary race to be the "first". Everyone would be considered equal by default as there is no scale to measure against. The height, the color of the skin, the age would make no sense. Ah, of course I am exaggerating. But can you see, some of the burden of our day-to-day life arise from the fact that we are so much obsessed with numbers. Maybe it is time to remind ourselves that we are just trees in the backyard of the creator. The counting is not the natural, but a prison built by our ancestors who failed to see the analogue nature of our environment. Maybe, we might just blow up the planet earth with our superior knowledge on numbers, in a WW3 and then, the analogue world would be inevitable.

Ignorance of numbers is a bliss.