Math Is King

The Original Algorithm and AI…

Think way back to 2nd grade. That was likely the first year that you really started to learn math. You learned the principles and fundamentals of math and how they worked. More especially, addition and subtraction. When we take a look at these basic principles, they are really just a set of rules.

When you learned how to add and subtract you didn’t do every combination of every number ever to learn it, you first learned the rules. What is an algorithm? Basically it’s a set of processes or rules to follow when something occurs. So when you get a problem like 347 + 29, you can accurately and quickly solve that problem, even though you have likely never done that exact problem before.

As we grew up we reached more advanced levels of mathematical capabilities, we advanced to multiplication and division, exponents and order of operations. Are these really harder? No, not really, rather they are just a bit more complicated rule sets, and longer processes.

You learned that 2 x 2 = 4. And 10 ÷ 2 = 5. And you learned that they were essentially the opposite of one another, just as you had learned prior in basic addition and subtraction. (This theory continues forever.) Then you learned a more complex process like long division, and all the steps required to complete that problem and find a solution. Then on your final that year when you reached ((2974 x 32) ÷ 8)¹⁷ you knew the solution. By the way the answer is 1.913446147 x 10⁶⁹…

Additionally, there were different syntaxes like the difference between saying add and find the sum. Or that ÷ meant the same thing as /. Likewise, X is a variable, an indicator of multiplication and also means the same thing as *. All of which, are merely additional rule sets that you stored in your algorithmic like computational brain.

Essentially math is really only a variety of if-then statements, it’s like a big decision tree and that is why I love it. There is always a right answer, there is always at least an estimate and it enables critical thinking skills that aren’t found in many other disciplines.

As we continued to progress we merely add combinations of one math rule set to the next. Reaching something like calculus only meant that now we were combining the elements of algebra and geometry in a slightly different way. Yet, all these “methods” if you will, for finding answers to questions we had are just an extrapolation of basic mathematical principles.

Math is at the heart of nearly every problem ever solved. It’s in all the models, it’s the basis of nearly every algorithm in existence, and helps us predict and forecast the future. It’s ability to explain the unknown is nearly infinite in its scope.

So yeah, math is king, it’s the most basic fundamental that will help you solve any problem, whether or not you’ve seen it before. It’s hard not to love math, and the only reason you hate it, is because you don’t understand it.