Dysfunctional Math

Over the past thirty years, history suddenly exploded and threw us off our trajectory. Without warning, progress went vertical, locking us in an acceleration trap.

This is perhaps best noticed in the math. The numbers are increasingly incomprehensible, the curves increasingly exponential (the profusion curve is actually hyperexponential), and the math increasingly dysfunctional.

To be sure, the world has witnessed almost continuous change, but never before with such levels of speed, suddenness, complexity, intensity, information, communication, media, money, mobility, technology, weaponry, and interconnectedness. Because the entire globe is a tightly-coupled system, a shudder anywhere has the potential of becoming a seizure everywhere.

Enormous amounts of change are now routinely seen in compressed time frames. By my observations, these changes have come so suddenly that few have a clear understanding of the mathematical drama we now face.

Generally speaking, most people aren't terribly interested in math or analysis. But our generational shift is dealing with something different, and it's best we remain vigilant. Willful ignorance does not constitute a functional exemption from the possible consequences that await us.