The Universal History of Number - Assignment Example

Question 1: Why was the “invention” of the numeral zero important in western culture? Before getting into the history and significance of the invention of the numeral Zero, there is need to make clear some concepts involved, whose understanding is very crucial in this subject - the concept of invention vs. discovery, the place value concept and the concept of numbers vs. numerals.1 Invention is different from discovery, though most people think that these two terms can be used interchangeably. Invention involves fabrication of something that was not in existence before.2 Discovery, on the other hand, is finding out the existence of something before any other person finds it out. Fossils are discovered by archaeologists, but we cannot say they invented them. Therefore, the numeral zero was invented and the number zero, which is an abstract noun, was discovered. Place value is the concept in which numbers are placed in different positions to come up with different degrees of quantification. For instance, the number three has a different meaning and quantity when it is in the “ones” position that when it is in the “tens” position3. A number can basically be described as a quantity that is used to quantify things. However, quantification is not helpful to human beings and machines if there is no symbol to represent the different degrees of quantities.4 The symbols that make numbers meaningful are called numerals, and they are basically an invention by human beings, just as universal road signs are used to make road safety tips useful. Different countries and cultures have different numeric symbols for different quantities, but there are those symbols that are universal. Zero is one such symbol, and it carries more significance that any other numeral.5 Zero is more useful as a numeral than when it is a number. For instance, it is easier to use zero in the number ten, say by dividing ten with two. However, it does not make sense to use zero as a number, say zero divided by one. A scientific calculator will tell you that this is a “syntax error” when you try to calculate such problems using zero independently as a number.6 Therefore, zero was invented to help more as a numeral and in place value notation than as an independent additional number. It may be hard to believe a world without the numeral zero, but that is what used to be the scenario back in the 3rd century. Even when it was first invented in the Arab world, Europe knew nothing about this number. It is said that the main inventors of this number are the Babylonians, way back in the third century, at around 300 BC. Before this invention, they used other symbols to show different place values in their quantities. The main symbol they used was the wedge. The wedge was used to show a one.7 When a ten needed to be indicated, a crescent symbol was used. Therefore, when a number like forty five needed to be written, four crescents and five wedges were drawn. The sailing was smooth until there was need to represent bigger numbers like 1604. The number could only be written in simplified form, which is by writing it as one “forty squared” and four wedges. However, most of the times, this would be confused for forty two instead of 1604.8 This is when a separator was invented, and this is how zero came into being. However, this separator was only used in between numbers, and not at the beginning or the end of such numbers. Therefore, a better numeral had to be invented that could be used without any restrictions9. The western culture really appreciated the invention of the numeral zero, because its invention brought much significance to the region’s development.10 Scientists like architects, pilots, mathematicians, et cetera were very limited in their doings because of the absence of this significant numeral or place holder. Its invention brought much relief, because better inventions and discoveries were made that led to the development of technology. Computerization was made possible with the invention of this numeral, because most of the computer language is coded in zeros11. Question 2: Imagine your life without electricity. What effect would a lack of electricity have on your day-to-day life? Life without electricity is unimaginable. Such a simple discovery as electricity has brought a total transformation in out day to day lives12. Electricity and, subsequently, electronics and electrical, are the mostly used tools everyday. There are many direct and indirect uses of electricity today. Direct uses include use of electrical and electronics like TVs, heaters, iron boxes, dish washers, medical equipment, computers, lights and the like. Electricity is also used by the consumer indirectly because almost every consumer good that is not handmade is produced by machines that are automated and that are powered by electricity. The very making of these machines is also done by electricity, and this explains why nobody can claim that they do not use electricity because they do not have electronics13. One of the markets that are booming today is the market for manufacture and sale of electronics. Supply of electricity is also big business, and every person is looking out for the best electricity supplier who has the best package to offer him or her14. Computerization would not be what it is without electricity. It would be impossible to shop from the available e-shops, and doing research online would be unheard of. It would be hard to have proper banking systems because there would be no computerization and therefore no proper way of keeping records. In addition, there would be no automated teller machines for cash withdrawals and deposits (Smeloff 1997). Cashiers at the mall would have to manually do calculations for the items purchased, or they would have to use calculators powered by batteries15. The queues in such places would be unbearable. In addition, the convenience stores and supermarkets would have to manually label every item, because it would not be possible to have automated bar codes on the items that would be interpreted by computers, because there would be no computers without electricity.16 Let alone having bar codes on items; the items would have no labels on them, because labels are printed using computers and printers. The labels would either be hand written or written by typesetting17. Getting to the fifteenth floor of a building would have to be by the staircase, or there would be a way through which a pulley system would be used to manually pull people and luggage up the floors.18 Cell phones would be very cumbersome to have, because charging them would be impossible. There would otherwise be solar batteries that would be placed in the sun for charging. This means that one would have around five batteries to interchange when one dies off. It would also look awkward waiting in the sun for your battery to charge. Security would be impossible to enjoy, because there would be no surveillance systems and there would be no sires in buildings. In addition, it would be impossible to maintain occupational safety when there is no public address system to notify people in the event of a fire or a calamity. It would be impossible to have movies and any other visual material, because there would be no way to view the materials.19 Maintaining databases in any context would have to be manual, and we would now have thousands of buildings specially made for filling systems to be stored in. imagine a piece of 10 GB data written manually on sheets of paper20. How would there be paper in the first place? It would have to be made out of manual presses, and there would be no quality paper for photographs and films. All there would be is coarse and poorly finished paper to write on. Having dinner in candle light or moon light would be the norm. Otherwise, on special occasions, having a bonfire with family, neighbours and friends would be use to do the lighting, heating and cooking in our homes. The medical sector would be a disaster without electricity, because there would be no medical electronics and equipment. What would an ICU or HDU look like without all the cables and the life support equipment? There would be no x-rays and ultra sound equipment to establish diagnoses.21 There would be no dialysis or chemotherapy, for kidney and cancer patients. The operation theatres would not exist, because there would be no way of supporting life during surgery. The environment would be much degraded because of the excessive use of batteries and other non-renewable sources of energy; the list is endless22.   What is a “mass society”? How and why did such a term originate? According to sociologists, mass society is a modern society whose traditional ties are either absent or very weak because of material comfort and systems of government. Such a society is usually dominated by a handful of people who are somewhat affluent and who have some degree of command and recognition in the society23. Such people mainly control such a mass society by using charisma to win people over and then exploiting them once they are under control. One major sector that has these elite people in the society who control the happenings of any mass society is the politics sector. These people are mainly responsible to what happens to the masses, and they enjoy the self given privileges of being exempted from “the rest” and being way above them in everything. Also, the masses which are influenced and dominated by this handful of people are usually uninformed, and their ignorance is usually the winning point for the elite and the “chosen few”24. Advancement in technology has caused the government to expand and to grow rapidly in every direction. The significance of the operations of government bodies has increased, too, with the advancement in technology25. This explains the reason why the government in any mass society has the upper hand in making the final decision concerning any vital sector in the society26. Such vital sectors include sanitation, food, education, health, occupational compensation and wellness, et cetera. This means that in any mass society, it is the government that directly or indirectly determines exactly how much a worker will be given at the end of every week or month. The way funds are distributed to special groups (elderly, sick and orphaned) is also determined by the governments27. The systems of government are so large, that the “common man” has little or absolutely no control over what happens to them and to those directly affected by them, say their beneficiaries. Everything this person does should be so that he might comply with the government’s bureaucracy’s standards, and self-sufficiency and sovereignty dwindles to a point where it almost no longer exists28. The mass society theory is a subject that is widely studied in any social science or social subject. The mass communication sector, which includes media, is one such area in which the topic of this theory of mass society is widely studied. As a matter of fact, the media (mass media) is the only surviving hope that mass societies will be maintained. The media has a way of restoring this structure depending on the information they pass down to the masses29. The same tool, the mass media, is the tool widely used by the elite to destroy the mass society structure, because media is the only way that these elite use to convey information down to the masses. What is required is the society to be transformed into a public one30. This is a society in which communication lines are open on both ends, such that it is not only the government that determines what will be done, but also the masses have their say they have a way through which their opinion reaches the government body unhampered and undistorted31. The view of the public also contributes to the final decisions that are made concerning the society. The communication system in a public society is so effective and organized that when the masses air their views, the government body gets the information within no time and a response is given while action is taken. The opinions of the masses are so important in such a system, that these opinions are regarded and implemented even when they are not in favour of the very people or the elite who are in control32. Authoritarian ruling has no place in such a society33. This is the opposite when it comes to a mass society, because those who are in a position or those who have the liberty to express themselves are numbered. Even when such express themselves, the opinions are received coldly, and no response is given or action taken. Those in control have such a well and tightly structured bureaucracy that the “common man” finds it impossible to pass on an opinion or to get the response when any is given34. The term “mass society” was “invented” to represent the picture of a so-called democratic society controlled by a few35. References Hamilton, Richard. Mass society, pluralism, and bureaucracy: explication, assessment, and commentary. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. Handler, Richard. Critics against culture: anthropological observers of mass society. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005 Hoggart, Richard. Mass Media in a Mass Society. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006. Ifrah, Georges. The Universal History of Number: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1999. Mahaney, Ian. Electricity. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2007. Mallory, J.P. and Adams, D.Q. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997. Smeloff, Ed and Asmus, Peter. Reinventing electric utilities: competition, citizen action, and clean power. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1997. Read More