The world scale is given a lot of reverence today mostly because it is associated with growing tech companies’ shares listed (or about to be listed) on a pubic stock exchange giving the founders tons of paper wealth.
In mathematics…the circumference of a circle going up 3.14 units for every 1 unit the diameter of a circle goes up; that’s linear scaling. The surface of a sphere scales to the second power (exponentially) of the circumference and the volume does the same to the third power. If you plot circumference vs diameter, surface area, or volume on a log-log plot (so that all the values don’t just scrunch up at one end) then the slope will be one, two, or three…..in other words the dimension of what is being compared to the circumference. The really cool thing is that the dimension can be fractional, like when you measure the coast of Britain, the length will have a dimension between one and two depending on the crinkliness of the coast. If area is crinkly enough it behaves like a volume.
In physics……..gravity gets bigger as the mass of a planet gets bigger and gets smaller inversely according to the distance squared between two planets. Of course Newton's Laws (scaling) break down both as you get beyond a certain big (Einstein’s relativity takes over) or a below a certain small (quantum mechanics takes over). It is similar with a coin that gets bigger and bigger……the outcomes of the coin toss (dynamics) become more deterministic (Newtonian) and less random (quantum mechanical).
In biology…….. quarter power scaling laws rule. For instance, If you compare one animal that is 100X the weight of another the metabolic rate doesn’t go up by 100X but only about 32X which is a hundred with an exponent of three quarters (100 with a little 3/4 in the upper right). An aorta scales to the one quarter power. This is a good blood flow description (explanation?) of why mammals are not bigger than a blue whale or smaller than a shrew.
In business…… where envy is converted to ambition (Nietzsche) and then to money, you hear a lot of “scaling” chat…especially nowadays in tech where marginal costs asymptotically approach zero pretty quick and the capital outlays to start some success story are now not as big as in the past. The famous “it from bit” line of Johnny Wheeler has come true; the nerds have won.
Dedicated to Moses 0000 Esq.
This is fabulous, and I want to share with you some words I have heard from the Lord about size, scale, and scope (this particular piece is from Tuesday 16 August 2022)
Staring at the vast horizon as the sun shows itself, I am thinking about what is ‘true’ and ‘constant’. I am thinking about what we see as ‘flat’, and how the sea horizon is the same here as anywhere. I am thinking about the ‘flatness’ or waters on ponds and lakes, and I hear His gentle voice:
"Consider My sea-level, child, and the roundness of the earth."
Without a feeling of motion, I am taken higher up in the atmosphere than I can imagine. I am still holding Luke on his leash, but I dare not look away from what I am seeing: the whole of the roundness of the earth. There is blue, a dazzling blue of the oceans, and white of the clouds. I am shown this view, and then I am standing on sand and rocks again, as though nothing just happened – as though “I do this all the time …”
"Consider the vertical limit of your physical selves, how earthbound you are, in what a thin slice of this earth you live – and then know that
I AM LIMITLESS
Remember these words, child, MY words: “Let there be light”, and there was light. How fast is fast, child?"
I hear Him actually laugh at this, for He already knows I am thinking of what we consider to be an ‘absolute’ limit: the ‘speed’ of light. I feel my mind have a strange wrinkle as I try to comprehend something beyond light.