Consider a world without barriers. Conflict resolves with pencil and paper. Hesitation and anxiety ease because the threat of miscommunication has dissapated. This sounds like a utopia; a world far beyond the scope of our own. Is it possible to generate this attractive culture absent of linguistic resistance? The concept of the universal language: the idea that the infeasiblility of global understanding is only a mirage created by the ambiguity of translation. Some believe a language (known as Esperanto) has already solved this problem. Others rely on love or kindess to be a dialect of this claim. A more common theory states that there is simply no such thing. However, I believe the solution to this debate has already been procured and has been evolving since the dawn of time. Unfortunately, it’s just not as recognizable as we would think. Enter the world of mathematics.

| “The world is a marvelous system of wiggles.” - Alan Watts |

Whether we believe the universe to have formed 13.8 billion years ago or in 7 days by God, we find ourselves on this Pale Blue Dot with a conscience seeking to determine our greater purpose. Specialists from various subject matters and diverging backgrounds parley in attempts to evaluate our reality; to discover what it is to be human. Spectacularly, we still haven’t derived any widely accepted results. By it’s own definition, reality is only existant based off of what is both known and unknown…so it stands to reason that we’re simply unable to agree on something that we’re unaware of in the first place. Perhaps a culmination of this, seemingly circular, research is either inattainable or would be better left undefined. A metaphorical asymptote has developed in place of this abstraction: we can get infinitely close but, in the end, never converge to a resolution. Besides, it’s entirely possible that our human errors could, in fact, subtract from our research. Attacking such a multi-faceted topic as this requires first bringing fact to the argument.

This “fact” can be drawn by telling you a little bit about myself. As a preface, it would be easy to derive some of this information beforehand by looking at my picture at the top of the page or by parsing through the provided links at the bottom. In order to create a fully-constructed mental image, however, I must define particular metrics that would allow you to evaluate me relative to the people in your current reality. I stand about 5 feet 11 inches and have a sleeve of tattoos on my left arm. I have brown eyes and short, brown hair and I’m fairly sure that I’m a little more tan than the background color of this article. In one form or another, I now hold a particular image in your mind that differs from the rest. I now challenge you to similarly evaluate how you differ from others but devoid of numeric or scientific representation or measurement. As specific as possible, outline who you are, apart from the residual public, lacking any form of quantification or mathematical terminology. Unfortunately, free of purely visual or quantitative depiction, it’s nearly impossible to construct a personal rendition of an object planted in one’s reality. Any true results of this task would only produce the most vague of visualizations.

| The universe and what we know to exist within it was, and is, quantifiable. |

As the author of this article, it wouldn’t be fair of me to deny you the opportunity of counter-argument. Below are a few topic models that I drummed up while making my own attempt at the assignment I gave above. Hopefully they somewhat represent your thoughts as well. It becomes exponentially clear that not many ‘qualities’ exist that aren’t innately associated with a quantitative counterpart:

Height/Weight. Obviously metrics like height and weight or similar measurements and summations are numerically dependent.

Color. A popular distinction that can be made between one individual compared to the population would be color. This may include skin tone, difference in hair or eye colors. Even wardrobe contents can create this diversity. Color, however, originates from light. The only way we are able to identify the variance of colors is by the size of the wavelength received by our eyes based on the reflection of light emitted from the object in question. Pure physics..pure math.

Outline. The next process in determing one-of-many is having an idea of the position they would take in our relative space. This can pertain to facial features or body size. The majority of this concept deals with perspective (similarly, see geometry). The distance of an object and, yet again, the contrast in colors and light help define a third dimension in an otherwise two-dimensional plane observed by the human eye.

At this point, we begin to recognize the exponential implausibility to progress through basic descriptive exercises without mere elementary arithmatic. Even grammatically speaking, the terminology I have been using is mathematical at it’s core. Whether this was by design or not, our minds inherently understand the logical processes behind these terms and statistics. We create outlines of reality and provide output actions as a result of our brains processing information returned by sensory retrieval. There is no deviating from this loop. Our reality is mathematical by nature, which means the question now has to be asked: how does math become the universal language?

| Words are only one in a multitude of media that are used as extensions of our thoughts and behaviors. |

According to Marriam-Webster, language involves “words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community.” Linguistics, more often than not, don’t see mathematics and it’s processes as mere transcriptions of what language can be but rather syntactical representations for pre-defined subject matters. The opposite is true, however. Written language, in and of itself, is also a syntactical representation. For a cohesive language to exist, the specific permutations and overall scaffolding of its contents require an associated interpretation. Otherwise, the complexities of spoken sounds and their written counterparts would be futile. Similarly, the application of well-known logical operators (+, -, x, ÷) within mathematics can only be coined productive if we tag them with a specific interpretation as well. For millenia, we have carefully crafted symbols, terminology, and their respective pronunciations to ensure that this virgin language would bloom to become fully realized and understood by the greater community. The development of arithmetic since the years B.C. have simply been an iteration of conventional, structured symbols used in combination to convey meanings. This allows us to get the same insights out of a calculation as we do from a conversation.

As a language, given these parameters, this study, so far, fits the mold. However, the thoery of omnipresence has not yet been confirmed. Luckily, this can be resolved quite easily. Due to it’s nature, calculation is fixed; it follows universal rules. There is right and there is wrong. Reality could not be constructed in any manner if a calculation was performed in any way against its design. This means that there are no dialects and, consequently, these concepts cannot be misinterpreted.

Simply, an argument could be made that mathematics is just a field of study meant to explain our reality and, to a degree, I would have to admit that to be valid. However, through experimentation, calculation, and quantification of one natural process, additional processes continue to align with our findings. The following examples are just a few of the mathematical developments that have remained unchanged for hundreds, and even thousands, of years.

Number systems were created to allow for symbolic representation of quantity and, subsequently, calculation. Many date back to early civilizations in Central Europe. We constructed our base-10 system solely on the fact that we have ten fingers. Timekeeping began with a stick in the sand. Isaac Newton influenced the, let’s be honest, universally accepted truth of gravity from an apple. The Fibonacci sequence was constructed during a study of rabbit population and is now a frequently apparent, mathematical phenomena in nature. Concentric circles are seen in trees, ripples in the water and display the appearance of certain magnetic fields. Logic, a branch of mathematics, was originally developed by ancient Greek philosophers as a proof-of-concept to help sensibly translate the unknown to the factual. Each and every one of these methodologies now serve as foundations for modern and contemporary principles ranging from the concepts of cancer research to artificial intelligence and even space colonization.

| Math is more than justification; it is alive. |

Deciphering abstractions of this nature is not a task stationed in everyone’s skillset. This results in my claim being exceedingly undermined and gives reason to why I’m trying to garner more attention to it. It’s beautiful to see the quantification and mathmatical representations of the world around us and how they play such an integral role in creating our reality. At this very moment, our reality continues to change. We are not timeless; we experience a linear increase of infinitely small points in time that make up a steady stream of progression. It’s our responsibility to synchronize with that continuity.