337
CERN scientists assure us that the LHC will not obliterate Switzerland, France, or
the rest of the world.
On August 2, 2010, mathematicians announced a new record for the digits of Pi:
5 trillion (short scale).
8
But it should come as no revelation that the proof of a
googleplexian Pi (a 1. + 100 zeros) is only a matter of time, since a vaporous instant
of thought can easily, and is tempted to, envision it. Which puts into particularly
forlorn perspective the recent declaration that the Chinese paddlefish, or swordfish
(Psephurus gladius: bearer of pebbles, dark tailed…), is now considered extinct.
9
What is the connection, one may ask? Quite simply, we are most proficient in illimitable numbers, but as numerals verge toward the few, and then the one, we easily
lose control. Until, at the level of the single individual, death and/or extinction
appears all but inevitable. Whereas we have no reason to worry about the extinction
of galaxies.
As of 2010, the IUCN still listed the Chinese paddlefish as critically endangered
10
along with 2464 other animals and 2104 plant species investigated at that
time.
11
It’s not that these biological quanta represent trivial numbers. Not by any
means. Only that they so tragically evoke the massive disparities in what humans do
with, or appear concerned by, large versus small numbers of things. We are greatly
impressed with the word “trillion” and equally astonished by those first few humans
whose personal wealth has exceeded 100 billion dollars. But we find saving a paddlefish or North American passenger pigeon from extinction too much effort of the
imagination.
38.3 Ecological Numerics
What can be said to defend the stature of numbers, when the imagination—any
imagination—clearly rejects limits, on either side of zero? How we reconcile that
emotionally wrought moment, standing in heated indoors on a bitterly cold night,
looking out the window in the dark at various animals that might be struggling, has
no defense. Try as we may to fall back upon ideas of natural selection, adaptation,
and resilience, such idle beliefs leave the heart no less heavy, despite our knowledge
8 See “5 Trillion Digits of Pi – New World Record,” by Alexander J. Yee and Shigeru Kondo, http://
www.numberworld.org/misc_runs/pi-5t/announce_en.html, Accessed January 15, 2020; For earlier records, see, “Pi record smashed as team finds two-quadrillionth digit,” by Jason Palmer, 16
September 2010, BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-11313194, Accessed
January 15, 2020.
9 “The Chinese paddlefish, one of the world’s largest fish, has gone extinct,” by Douglas Main,
National Geographic, January 8, 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/01/
chinese-paddlefish-one-of-largest-fish-extinct/. Accessed January 15, 2020.
10 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/18428/8264989
11 IUCN (2014). “Table 2: Changes in numbers of species in the threatened categories (CR, EN,
VU) from 1996 to 2014 (IUCN Red List version 2014.2) for the major taxonomic groups on the
Red List” (PDF).
38.3 Ecological Numerics
CERN scientists assure us that the LHC will not obliterate Switzerland, France, or
the rest of the world.
On August 2, 2010, mathematicians announced a new record for the digits of Pi:
5 trillion (short scale).
8
But it should come as no revelation that the proof of a
googleplexian Pi (a 1. + 100 zeros) is only a matter of time, since a vaporous instant
of thought can easily, and is tempted to, envision it. Which puts into particularly
forlorn perspective the recent declaration that the Chinese paddlefish, or swordfish
(Psephurus gladius: bearer of pebbles, dark tailed…), is now considered extinct.
9
What is the connection, one may ask? Quite simply, we are most proficient in illimitable numbers, but as numerals verge toward the few, and then the one, we easily
lose control. Until, at the level of the single individual, death and/or extinction
appears all but inevitable. Whereas we have no reason to worry about the extinction
of galaxies.
As of 2010, the IUCN still listed the Chinese paddlefish as critically endangered
10
along with 2464 other animals and 2104 plant species investigated at that
time.
11
It’s not that these biological quanta represent trivial numbers. Not by any
means. Only that they so tragically evoke the massive disparities in what humans do
with, or appear concerned by, large versus small numbers of things. We are greatly
impressed with the word “trillion” and equally astonished by those first few humans
whose personal wealth has exceeded 100 billion dollars. But we find saving a paddlefish or North American passenger pigeon from extinction too much effort of the
imagination.
38.3 Ecological Numerics
What can be said to defend the stature of numbers, when the imagination—any
imagination—clearly rejects limits, on either side of zero? How we reconcile that
emotionally wrought moment, standing in heated indoors on a bitterly cold night,
looking out the window in the dark at various animals that might be struggling, has
no defense. Try as we may to fall back upon ideas of natural selection, adaptation,
and resilience, such idle beliefs leave the heart no less heavy, despite our knowledge
8 See “5 Trillion Digits of Pi – New World Record,” by Alexander J. Yee and Shigeru Kondo, http://
www.numberworld.org/misc_runs/pi-5t/announce_en.html, Accessed January 15, 2020; For earlier records, see, “Pi record smashed as team finds two-quadrillionth digit,” by Jason Palmer, 16
September 2010, BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-11313194, Accessed
January 15, 2020.
9 “The Chinese paddlefish, one of the world’s largest fish, has gone extinct,” by Douglas Main,
National Geographic, January 8, 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/01/
chinese-paddlefish-one-of-largest-fish-extinct/. Accessed January 15, 2020.
10 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/18428/8264989
11 IUCN (2014). “Table 2: Changes in numbers of species in the threatened categories (CR, EN,
VU) from 1996 to 2014 (IUCN Red List version 2014.2) for the major taxonomic groups on the
Red List” (PDF).
38.3 Ecological Numerics