To Mathematics and Beyond

It was a chance conversation with my father's classmate last evening that has prompted me to pen these thoughts down. Of all the things we discussed, one idea stuck with me closely; it was the fundamental importance of mathematics in daily life. Of course, the context of our conversation was different, but it has sparked something in me something that I am unwilling to let go of just yet.

On the way back home it occurred to me that the very same ride could go in a million different ways. I began to think a little more.

Before I proceed, please note that I have no intention to sound spiritual or intellectual. This is a thought that has moved me more than I would have liked to have been, and I want to share it with you - to either dissuade me from thinking this way or to encourage it. For what it's worth, do hear me out.

We live in a series of infinite permutations and combinations ("P&Cs") that we create. Every new decision that we make gives rise to a series of other sets of P&Cs. To find a definite number of such P&Cs would be a mathematical feat that I lack the competency to undertake, and would miss the point. The point is simple: we do not know whether everything happens for a reason. All we know is that we are constantly changing the problem, so there can be no finite solution. The qualitative analysis of these decisions can only be determined with time. Perhaps that is the solution - time. We commend our hindsight for this very reason. Stephen Hawking's life work dwelled around this idea for this reason; that time is something remarkable and really unpredictable.

We decide to plan our days and create schedules to bring about a sense of order in our immediate surroundings. We try to "manage time" only to see it slip away day after day and year after year. We bring in systems like rules and the law to have some sense of control over these permutations. We crave order so that we can attempt to predict actions and their consequences.
I once used to believe that one could control the choices one made, but it is never just one's own choice; it is a series of choices arising from different people, forming a complex web with one another. If things were simple, history would have been linear. It is not. Our present-day is a testament to this very fact; we crave order, but of our own lives. We only fathom our needs but make decisions that create ripples in the large ocean of people we are surrounded by. Nobody would have presumed that a Chinese population eating bat meat would have caused panic and scare throughout the world, but hey, here we are. This is the consequence of a few actions, which will be the cause of certain others. Do you see? It is beautiful how everything magically comes together, and then apart, only to come together in a different manner once again.

Sometimes, a series of choices persist, and we call them systems or structures. That rules out the possibility for much change, reducing the mathematical solution to a slightly smaller set of numbers and giving room for less disorder and more predictability. Revolutions have changed that. The voices that spoke out against "order" made it impossible to predict thereafter. Some did not anticipate the country going up in arms against the CAA because it promised to bring in a certain sense of order; the P&Cs vastly differed from what the government might have anticipated. The solution could be one of two things. The first is time, where we think in hindsight of what could have been done. The second is the appropriate deed undertaken by the right person or group of persons before it is too late. It is the P&Cs of millions of people made in the past that we analyse today and study as 'history'. It is the P&Cs of a few legislators and members of the judiciary, that we analyse while keeping in mind the politics of our time, that we study as 'law'. Given the ability of every person to change his or her contribution to this web, nothing can be easily predicted. The law is not what has always been. Precedent once was the rule of the day, but one single judge's willingness to bring about a logical difference can change even that.

We do not entirely choose to become the way we are; it is impossible to have so much control. Money and power can help you buy things, but it's not nearly enough. One may control immediate outcomes, but not everything that will follow.
The same situation could have happened differently. We have only to thank our choices, and the choices of those on whom ours depends upon, for this unique P&C is what then makes sense for now.

What we must know, therefore, is that we know nothing at all.

Source: Artidote