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The Blessing and Curse of Decomposition
Breaking things down into parts is at the heart of science, but also messes with our reality
The use of symbols in modern times almost seems like a given, like a natural part of the world around us. There are icons on every screen, logos on every device, the colorful geometry of street signs, emojis in our texts. Their ubiquity makes it seem like it could be no other way, yet we have to remember that it is part of a visual language we’ve learned through the process of decomposition and recombination.
Let’s step back for a second and first look at abstraction. Of all the symbols in our daily lives, the one that carries with it the most power are numbers. They provide not only a means, but the means of communicating and tracking quantity. It tells us what time it is, what the temperature is, how much money we have, how smart and skilled we are, how long we have lived. It can be argued whether numbers were invented or discovered, but I tend to lean on the former. Abstract symbols like numbers do not exist outside of our heads. They are inside of our brains. The quantities themselves and their mathematical relations may be inherent and discoverable in the universe, yet the system of representation is an invention.
