The Importance and the Limits of Number (English)

"Number" plays such an important role especially in our modern society where accountability and equality are required in all areas.

Companies need to explain "How much" they have gained and lost to their investors.

Ruling party in governments is decided based on "How many" votes they got.

Universities are accepting students judging "How many" scores they got in SAT.

The biggest point of number is that it is completely objective.

1 is smaller than 5 and 1001 is bigger than 1000. This is a fact.

Therefore, it is easy to judge things based on number.

When we need to judge something, we need criterion.

For example, to judge whether one project had a positive impact in the society or not, we usually use statistics.

For example,
"According to the statistics, thanks to this project, the average income in the area A has soared up to B"
or
"Because of this law, A percent of woman is excluded from the process of decision making in this community"

The good news is that the data based on number is so objective that it is easy to understand. There is no room to insert subjective opinion or ideology.

In other words, number is a shared language among people.

As I wrote before (in Japanese), verbal communication always accompanies misunderstanding and confusion because the definition of each words we use differs slightly (or largely? hahaha!) depending on the person who use those.

But number is exception.

When we discuss a matter based on number, there is less misunderstanding. (I would not say NO misunderstanding because the interpretation of number also differs from people to people.)

In our diverse world where so many ideas, religions and ideologies exist and are having problems and conflicts, sometimes it seems like it is better to communicate based on number, which is a shared language.

However, the thing is that the most important thing in our life does NOT come from numbers.

Happiness, fulfillment, love, joy, satisfaction, passion, etc etc: all these things are not explained or counted by number.

I think it is one of the big paradox of modern society.

People look for objectivity, fairness, accountability and transparency. To judge these things, we use number as our shared language.
But the most important thing in our life cannot expressed by number.

Recently, people are trying to develop a way to measure people's happiness "by number": for example

•Happy Planet Index: http://www.happyplanetindex.org/
•World Happiness Report: http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2960

But the criticism is always "can we really measure the happiness by number"??

I am not criticizing the judgement based on number.
Nor I am denying the importance of the factors inexplicable by numbers.

It's case by case. We need to think about when we should use number as a criterion and when not to.

Balance is always important.