For you rebels out there that seek every opportunity to resist authority, regardless of whether you should act as ordered by your own reasoning and for your own good, let me tell you a story our high school math teacher used to introduce exponential functions.
A wise man was asked by the emperor how much grain he would like to receive for services rendered to the emperor. The wise man requested that one grain of rice be put on the first square of a chessboard and the amount should be doubled on the next square until all squares are covered. One grain on the first square, two on the next, four on the third, and so on. After consulting with his educated advisers the emperor refused the innocent looking deal. If he had accepted the proposal, he would have had to mortgage the solar system to pay the wise man off.
Most folks who work with computers will know that on square 8 you will have 255 grains. By square 16 that amount has increased to 65,535. After another 8 squares (at square 24) the number has risen to 16,777,215 (sixteen million and change). Eight more squares later , on square 32, we have 4,294,967,295. That's over 4 BILLION. Long story short, it would take roughly one millennium of the world's rice production to fill the entire 64 squares of the chess board.
Before you play "tough guy" or "big mouth", let these numbers of exponential growth sink in and realize that the SARS-CoV-2 virus we are dealing with has a infection rate larger than the example above UNLESS we practice social distancing, wear respiratory protection, and practice good hygiene.
Please do not interpret the current global crisis as a plot for a new world order or some other political stunt you feel (rightfully) compelled to resist. The number of dead people is for real and it will double roughly every 3 days at our current behavior. If you do not believe that, write today's number down and check again in 3 days. If it takes a day or two more to double, great. But remember that it took only 24 steps on the chessboard to get to 16+ million.
STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM OTHER PEOPLE as much as possible and AND WEAR PPE when in public places. And have some confidence that after we are through this challenge, there will be much fewer people keen on living in urban ghettos and marching in goose step to some political dogma. The world will be a better place after this. Emptier, humbler, and more self-reliant. At least for a while and only for those who survive this pandemic.
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