The Importance of Numbers

 The human brain only know the following quantities of things: none, unity and many. But the development of the cerebral cortex has enabled humans to develop systems of numbers for representing quantities more precisely than "many" as information that can be stored in the brain.

The most basic of these  number systems is the binary number system which uses only the symbols "0"  to symbolically represent "none" and "1" to represent unity. This is the number system used by computers. 

So we begin with the number 0 representing a basket for holding apples that has no apples in it with "n" presenting the apples in the basket: n = 0

Then we add a single apple 🍎represented by the number 1 to the basket: n= 0+1=1 Unity added to none is unity.

Now we add another apple to the basket🍎🍎such that  n=0+1+1. We have no symbol to represent 0+1+1 apples in the basket and we need a mathematical system to represent it using on the symbols 0 and 1. The system we use says that 0+0=1, 0+1=1 and 1+1= 10. That is, 1+1 pushes the symbol 1 to the left, leaving a 0 in its place.

Another apple in the basket 🍎🍎🍎results in: n=10+01=11.

And yet another apple 🍎🍎🍎🍎 gives us n=11+01=100.

This is exactly the same method you learned in elementary school to represent quantities great than unity in school except you learned with a mathematical system having the symbols 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 7, 8 and 9 such that 🍎 is represented by 1, 🍎🍎 by 2, 🍎🍎🍎,  by 3, 🍎🍎🍎🍎 by 4, until 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎is represented by 9. But we have no symbol for 9+1 apples and so when we reach that quantity we shift the 1 to the left and add it to 0 to get 09+01= 10.

But, alas, these "numbers" have no meaning to that part of the brain not part of the cerebral cortex which does not control our emotions. It still functions solely on "none", "one" and "many" and this is reflected in our emotional responses to events. It hasn't a clue of what the image "9" means. Only the image of 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 has meaning to it. And only to the cerebral cortex which enables rational thinks does "9" have meaning. But, in turn, it cannot effectively visualize 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎apples without actually seeing them.

We see the manifestation of this in response to such events as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Those whose thoughts and actions are dominated emotions see only "too many" deaths and we should use "as many" of our finite resources as necessary to prevent deaths any deaths. They will complain that rich people have "too much " of the wealth but will never give you a night for what "too much" is. They see no value in absolute numbers. 

Those whose thoughts and actions are dominated by reason see the actual numbers of deaths and use reasoning to determine how many of our finite resources we should use to prevent prevent deaths.To them numbers have a great deal of meaning.

The humane answer to emotional vs. reasoned responses probably lies somewhere between the two extremes.