Focus on four aspects of counting: money, health, power, and improving counting methods.
Emphasis on the underrated significance of counting in various contexts.
Case Study: Denise Schmand-Besarat
Born in 1933, France.
Childhood during WWII was relatively pleasant due to family support.
Married German philosopher Jürgen Schmand-Besarat in 1954, despite societal pressures.
Experienced a sense of dissatisfaction despite having a seemingly perfect life.
Inspired by a friend's experience at the Great Pyramid to seek answers through solitude.
Realized her frustration stemmed from feeling like a housewife and sought further education.
Enrolled in archaeology at the Louvre and became a researcher affiliated with Harvard by the 1960s.
Discovery of Clay Tokens
Denise became fascinated with the everyday uses of clay, particularly the tokens found in Mesopotamia.
Tokens were used for counting and signified economic commodities, overlooked by other archaeologists.
Tokens represented an early form of accountancy, crucial to Mesopotamian economies.
Denise's research suggested that these tokens were fundamental to understanding early mathematics and writing, as they led to the development of cuneiform writing.
The Role of Counting in Civilization
Counting is often underappreciated but is essential for organizing complex societies.
Denise's work highlighted the importance of counting in the development of civilization.
Counting serves as a foundation for communication and data storage.
Historical Context of Medical Advice
Edwin Smith Papyrus: Ancient Egyptian medical advice, mostly ineffective.
Evolution of medical treatments and importance of clinical trials.
Case Studies in Clinical Trials:
James Lind: Conducted the first clinical trial for scurvy treatment, showing the effectiveness of citrus.
Archie Cochrane: Advocated for systematic counting and the importance of randomized controlled trials to improve healthcare.
Lessons from History
Importance of systematically counting health outcomes to evaluate treatments.
Need for accessible databases of clinical trials for effective medical research.
The Evolution of Counting: The Census Bureau
1880s US Census Bureau faced challenges with complex census questions.
Developed a competition to find better counting methods, leading to the invention of the punch card tabulation machine by Herman Hollerith.
Hollerith's machine revolutionized the counting process and laid groundwork for modern computing, later becoming IBM.
Highlighted implications of counting in governance, including its misuse in Nazi Germany.
The Power of Counting in Modern Society
Importance of counting in understanding social issues like food poverty and health data.
Example of anonymized medical records in Massachusetts and the need for secure data management to protect privacy while allowing research.
OpenSafely: A project demonstrating effective, privacy-preserving data analysis for healthcare research.
Conclusion
Society undervalues the power of systematic counting.
Need for improved data collection and analysis practices to address health, social, and economic issues.
Encouragement to explore the potential of counting and data management.