On Measurement
How do we decide what "is"?
I often wonder about how we have decided what “counts” and what makes the “rules.”
My daughter (age 13) follows a YouTuber who makes videos of herself measuring objects or spaces using everyday things (she often uses Barbie dolls as the unit of measure), and the fact that my kid is willing to spend her time watching someone do this thrills me. Because I want her to connect to the fact that we can change the rules. (and the rulers, get it?! Ha!)
Most of the things that we rely on to make us feel like we are in control of things and that there is order in the world - are just things that were invented by humans. (Cue the Wizard behind the curtain wildly spinning the handle of a smoke machine.)
I’m not saying that humans can’t be trusted - I do think that humans are pretty amazing creatures. I’m just saying it’s pretty remarkable how much we are willing to suspend our critical thinking about IF something is safe (or even good) because it is just the “way we do things.”
This came up for me when I had a three year old who didn’t trust elevators. Between calmly explaining that “This is a metal box that goes up and down on big cables…” and, “there are people who work on the elevator to make sure it is safe for us to use….” I realized how much of riding an elevator was automatic behaviour for me. I realized that I hadn’t critically considered the mechanics behind the riding experience until my child didn’t want to cross the space between the box and the floor.
I had a student once get very upset when I said that measurement is arbitrary. (To be fair, he was an engineer who had to use systems of measurement to build things like bridges - I had to be clear that I wasn’t saying that using measurement as a system of control was arbitrary - but that units of measurements themselves were devised from ideas about what would work for the purpose of measuring over time.) It really surprised me to see how strongly he reacted to this statement, but I fully understand how critical consideration of the systems you trust will shake you off your base (I still can’t get on an elevator without considering WHO serviced this WHEN and HOW invested were they in my safety?).
Whether you’re thinking about how you’re being asked to trust a metal box suspended by a cable, or if you’re deconstructing the thinking behind systems of measurement - it can unsettle us to realize that the things that we trust and rely on are often things that other humans invented to solve a problem at some time in the past.
More unsettling perhaps, is the recognition that how we got to now was shaped so much by humans - and the responsibility that how we will get to next will be shaped by US.