Of Windows and Words

The studios in my building are rented out in three varieties: Deluxe, Regular, and Economy. Obviously, the Deluxe is the most expensive of the studios, the Regular is of a more moderate price tag, and the Economy is -- relatively speaking -- cheap. From these three descriptions, one might assume that this pricing scale is reasonable and appropriate in its correspondence with the quality of the rooms. And within a certain rationale, it is. The Deluxe studios are located in the corners of the building and therefore possess two windows instead of the standard one. The Regular studios do not directly face another building and instead are buffered from this invasion of urban privacy by one of four streets. The Economy studios, however, have the misfortune of facing the dilapidated Deli & Market that shares the block with my building. Veritable tenements, indeed.

My studio is of the "Economy" variety, but I am fortunate enough to be facing the heart of the city, towards the waterfront. My window is a frame for the buildings -- a snapshot of the skyline. The high rises have invisible skeletons at this time in the evening, and are nothing more than a collective glow, like giant cheese graters illuminated from within. On the tallest of these structures, little red eyes peek from the top corners, fading in and out, yawn-like. They are the protectors, the warning to the heavens, and yet they do not dismiss their ceremonial duties of illuminating my window and entertaining my eyes. This is as close as humanity can come to imitating the beauty of the natural world, and it's all contained within my window -- for a lesser price than other windows.

Clearly, price is not always an adequate indicator of value. But what then is the relationship between value and price? Does one possess meaning and the other lack it, or are they both confined to the realm of the arbitrary?

This price-value quandary is chiefly a dilemma of symbols -- in essence, a linguistics problem. To examine the same issue from another angle, think of the word "tree". Obviously, no two trees are identical. Equally obvious is the fact that it would be extremely difficult to give each individual tree its own specialized word with which it can be referenced. Instead, we have the word "tree", which, far from specifying an exact object, merely points to a very general and abstract category -- an arbitrary construction that does not physically exist. There is no such thing as a "tree".

It might be suggested that if numbers were utilized, it would be theoretically possible to "name" every tree in the world, by assigning each tree a distinct value. This hypothesis is flawed, however, since it bases its assertion on the word "tree" -- the very word to be avoided! Why should one only name trees? Trees are made up of bark and twigs and many other parts. Why assume that bark and twigs should be collected together in the category of tree, even if you are replacing "tree" with a unique number? The track is circular. Even in our most clever attempts to utilize infinity to circumvent language, we are bound to our starting point: Words.

It is no different with the pricing of my room. How does one go about determining the price of a room? You could assign a number to certain criteria, i.e. the number of windows and the direction they face, but why limit yourself to those criteria? Why not measure the distance from the studio door to the stairs? Or why not account for the effect of wind chill on different sides of the building? Why not count the specks of dust on the window sill and figure that into the price of the studio? As with the tree, there is no level of categorization that is more meaningful than another. Price, like language, is just another attempt to sort the universe into arbitrary divisions. Both price and language are symbols.

And symbols are what separate humanity from infinity.

"Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name." Genesis 2:19

A Thought Experiment

Imagine you want to buy a car. You go to a dealership and the dealer offers you a choice between two cars. The cars are identical in almost every way – make, model, year, mileage, price. There is, however, one exception. Car A has a maximum speed of 40 mph, while Car B can go up to 120 mph.

-Which car do you choose?
-Car B, of course.

-Why?
-Because it's better.

-How so?
-It can go faster.

-Why does that make the car better?
-In today's road environment, there are many situations where it is necessary to drive faster than 40 mph. It is a necessity to go faster than 40 mph.

But why should it be a necessity? For the majority of humanity's existence, no one has had the ability to travel faster than 40 mph, let alone need to travel at such speed. It was not until travel at such a speed was realized to be feasible that it became necessary to do so. And here is the underlying principle: In a progress-based society, the moment a technological advancement is birthed is the same moment that the said technological advancement becomes a necessity. You do not argue with the ability to travel faster than 40 mph. Now, obviously this phenomenon, when specifically applied to vehicle speeds, has been limited by the state in the form of speed limits. But government intervention does not void the effect of a "progress" and technologically oriented society; to the contrary, it reinforces it. For example, it may be illegal to drive faster than a certain speed, but it is also equally illegal to drive slower than a certain speed. There is no other option; technology has eliminated the choices.

Take, for example, the atomic bomb. It was not necessary to have a weapon that could destroy cities until the weapon was invented. Now, it is seen in the best personal interest of every country to have nuclear weapons, not necessarily because the country intends to use them, but "just in case". Why build something you do not wish to use? But that is the control of technological advancement: There is no other option.

Technological advancement and progress become the masters of society – even daily life. To live in a world that values efficiency and speed is to be enslaved.