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Written by Ed
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Sunday, 23 August 2009 20:04 |
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We hear so often that in politics left and right are at war with each other. But as our circumstances get more extreme thanks to climate change and lack of resources, we may see a type of convergence that is predicted by mathematics.
This will sound a bit 'out there' but representing 'left' and 'right' as a straight line could be redundant. The two ends of a straight line never meet do where does that leave us on issues such as climate change which is not exclusively left or right?
In high school, your maths teacher probably had a number line on the wall. Zero sat in the middle, negative numbers of the left and positive numbers on the right. The line was straight and nobody questioned the line. Until someone suggested: let's make this line a circle. The real projective line was born. Zero at one pole, infinity at the other.
This representation is known as the real projective line: 
Follow the negative number left or the positive numbers right and we eventually meet at the same point. To re-use the climate change example, left or right politicians can take different paths but end up at the same point: we must reduce pollution and over-consumption.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 September 2009 23:06 |
