the binary system

 Today is a binary day. Almost all two's anyway. Reminds me of when I was in school and the math teacher was talking about the binary system. I didn't understand the implication of that then but have grown to appreciate it. The lesson, as I remember it from back then, also talked about other systems based on different numbers. Ours is based on ten! I learned that much anyway, regular math wiz. But the truth is I was never very interested in mathematics and learning Algebra and all the other methods. I found I could determine whatever number I needed to know using common sense and simple math. That's because I wasn't interested in determining abstract numbers. I can read a ruler, a micrometer (the old kind) and any number of gauges. From that I can usually figure out whatever I want to know. I have to say in the fifty years since I graduated high school never once have I said, wish I knew Algebra. Have wished I paid closer attention in business math though, compounding interest and all that. Come to think about it the only people I have personally known that made a living with math were accountants. 

 Well, whatever the case may be the binary system is the way to go. I have discovered that is what a computer uses. Really, I had it explained this way. In a computer each "switch" is either on or off, in position one or two. Right and wrong. And that is how I operate as well, It is either right or wrong. The path taken to arrive at the answer isn't as important as the result. Maybe I knew that on some level back in '68 when Mrs. McMahon, my algebra teacher, insisted I prove my answer. I had provided a solution to the problem, and she agreed that the answer was correct, it was then she said I had to prove it. I told her, you said it was right, that's good enough for me. For me the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes. The answer was correct and I stand by that answer. Did it matter how I got the answer? As long as I didn't cheat to get it, I didn't think so. I feel the same way today. 

 We have certainly embraced the computer, haven't we? Right and wrong, on and off. Today we are attempting to get the computer to "prove" the answer. We are not satisfied with knowing the answer, no, we want to know why that is the answer. The search for proof! How are we going to do that? By adding more "switches" and more "paths" to the end result. Thing is, in the end, the correct answer will always be the correct answer. Yes, in the end, one and one will still equal two. The only way it doesn't is when you change the "value" or the "name." That's what exponents do in linguistics, as well as math. In math it is repetition and in language something more abstract. It's an attempt to explain the answer. 

 I was thinking about that when I heard that Whoopi was suspended from her television show. The reason was her remarks about the holocaust. Now the thing is, it was wrong what she said. Even her "friends" took issue with what she was saying. But what got her suspended was her trying to "explain" her answer. The thing is her answer was wrong, simply wrong, and everyone knows it is wrong. Her attempting to "justify" and "explain" that answer is also wrong. Many times you will get yourself into deeper trouble trying to "prove" your answer. 

 Now I don't care if Whoopi is suspended, fired or whatever. I really don't care at all, that will have zero impact on my life. What she said is wrong. What I am concerned with is what Joe Biden has said, and continues to say, that is also wrong and seems to go unchallenged. He said he will nominate a black woman to the court. That is a statement of racism/sexism. When the only possible candidate must be a black female, how is that anything else? That is simply, basically, and unequivocally, a fact. Yet I hear many attempting to explain that answer. In my experience when you have to explain your answer, it is usually wrong. That's why, when you are a child, your parent will say to you, because I said so, that's why! They don't attempt to explain, they already know, it's the right answer. Binary, right and wrong. Like human beings, binary, male and female. There are only two answers. The right one and the wrong one. Hey, even the groundhog has a 50/50 chance of being right. I'm a big fan of the binary system.