The author explores the human difficulty in comprehending extremely large numbers, drawing parallels to the sensation of vertigo when experiencing extreme heights. Just as physical scale can be disorienting, abstract numerical quantities, such as wealth or GDP, are hard to intuitively grasp. This cognitive limitation can lead to misunderstandings of scale and disparity, as our brains tend to use symbolic placeholders rather than truly visualizing these magnitudes. The piece suggests that our internal representation of numbers is non-linear and influenced by physical orientation, highlighting the embodied nature of mathematical thought. AI
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RANK_REASON This is a personal essay reflecting on cognitive biases related to large numbers, not reporting on a specific AI development or event.
