The Mathematics of History - 10 views
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rahul datta on 25 Oct 13The idea presented here is very interesting, increasing the depths of historical analysis through digital statistics and other forms of measurement. This provides a different dimension to studying history, as normally it revolves around studying various human factors before and after an event, the possible advent of math incorporated in the subject would enable a new and greater understanding of a particular time period, while also allowing for future speculation of events that could lead to prevention of potentially negative ones. The only problem with this talk is it is short and leaves the viewer with unanswered doubts (intentional?), such as how can one be certain that algorithms based on the past where circumstances were entirely different are reliable for predicting future events?
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william doughty on 22 Nov 13Jean Baptiste Michel comments on the human ability to "perceive quantities" (2:30, the mathematics of history), he goes on to explain his point with this analogy; committing 10,000 soldiers to a battle in which already 1,000 soldiers have been committed previously, is relatively an enormous quantity of soldiers to the war. On the other hand, committing 10,000 soldiers to a battle in which already 100,000 soldiers have been previously committed is a relatively low quantity in terms of war. I found this to be interesting, in how our mathematical process affects our perception of history. War is a prominent fixture in human history, while death is a way in which people can relate to history, mathematics plays a prominent part in understanding and quantifying an emotional response from an individual. Michel states to the that large numbers of casualties in war's are proportional to the relative stakes, so therefore the larger the number of casualties, mathematically could have less emotional impact to an individual. This is becomes an issue when studying war's and conflicts in our history. While we inherently bring greater importance to events in which many casualties occurred yet are unable to emotionally connect due to our mathematical and statistical reasoning and perception.
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Mariko Makhmutova on 29 Nov 13I really liked this TED Talk because it looked at history in a way that I never thought would be possible - through mathematics. I found it interesting that humans behave in systematic, mathematical ways, even though we don't think we do. Natural sciences such as physics and chemistry all have some mathematical bases or phenomena that can be explained in terms of maths. Social sciences, such as economics, history and psychology are rarely ever explained in terms of mathematics. It seems illogical to think that humans behave in a systematic manner. However, I think that if this idea of mathematics being a part of history becomes popularized, this could help us in many ways. In the beginning, we would be able to understand the patterns in history, we'd be able to understand part of the human thinking process, such as the perception of quantities and how it affects our decisions, as Jean-Baptiste Michel said. Later on, however, we would be able to predict the future and possibly prevent unfavourable outcomes. I think the systematic way of looking at history may be a big step for humanity. (Although, it may cause us to act like robots, which may lead to other implications.)