What is 100,000? It's just a number composed of 5 circles, a line, and a comma. But what does it really represent? The population of Ann Arbor is around 100,000, it's more than three times the height of Mt.Everest, weather balloons start to explode around 100,000 feet in the sky. 100,000 is a really BIG number. Yet the population of Ann Arbor doesn't astonish me, 3 times the height of Mt.Everest doesn't really overwhelm me with awe, and a weather balloon exploding in the sky certainly doesn't incite a sense of wonder. As humans, we've lost our "number sense". Large numbers are no longer special because our world has expanded so much. We're no longer cramped in town or city we lie in, we can experience the whole world. This expanded worldview has lead to incredible innovations and discoveries, but it has also lessened our sense of wonder.
Many writers have written books that warn humanity of a coming crisis or mock societies current direction. Fitzgerald mocks the rampant materialism of the 1920s in The Great Gatsby. Orwell allegorically ridicules the Soviet Union in Animal Farm. Huxley warns us of the dangers that rapid advances in technology can cause in A Brave New World. Golding highlights the inherent savage nature of humans and the negative impacts of war in Lord of the Flies. Many great writers have written even greater books detailing the troubles within society. Yet no one has even mentioned how humans have been desensitized to magnitude and size.
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