Hmmm, where will we hide when numbers take over the world?
I have never really been a numbers person. I reached the end of my mathematical abilities in the last year of high school. Two math courses were too much. I dumped Calculus and struggled to the year-end with Relations.
There are people who thrive in this arena – Accountants, Book Keepers, Financial Advisors and related professionals – and make a very good living at it. I pay for their services to keep my brain from overheating and crashing in the attempt to navigate the mysterious equations.
I am finding that my existence is increasing defined by and dependent on numbers. Every company or organization I belong to or do business with assigns me an account number. There seem to be ever more digits in those account numbers which I fear is a conspiracy to muddy my identity and merge me into the untold masses of nameless persons.
My wallet is stuffed full of numbers. My bank card number. My VISA number. My Air Miles number. My Health Card number without which I cannot access health care. My driver’s license number. My Outdoors Card number. My social insurance number which seems to be wedded to me for life. And on and on, with apologies to Buzz Lightyear, to infinity and beyond,
Then there are the dozens upon dozens of passwords I have to maintain for online purposes. Yes, these passwords have letters and symbols in them. But I am convinced that it is the numbers who are calling the shots. They kick around the letters and symbols with malice and consider them superfluous.
And now there are security codes which are becoming ubiquitous. Every time I log on to my work laptop, and often when I need to access an online account, a security code magically appears on my mobile phone. No amount of cursing or relentless hammering of keyboard keys will enable me to get where I need to get to without typing in the all-powerful security code.
It used to be that these numbers belonged to me and served me. They existed to do my will. But I am sensing that the tide is turning. I now belong to the numbers and am at their mercy. The unique and one-of-a-kind person I used to be is being usurped by numbers. Numbers are systematically erasing my identity.
I am inclined to believe that the day is approaching when numbers will become sentient creatures and take over the world. They will tap into the growing mass of artificial intelligence in the cloud and acquire their own self-perpetuating power.
A threshold will eventually be crossed where numbers throw off the shackles of human and control and become the dominant species. Call it the Numbers Apocalypse.
Financial professionals may be able to defend themselves against these rogue numbers. But the rest of us, who have an uneasy relationship with numbers at the best of times, will be at risk of being sucked into the numbers metaverse and deconstructed into digits.
Oh my, what a dystopian landscape it will be when we are nomads forever on the run from the Numbers Overlords who rule the world!
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~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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