When reality can not be explained, can we change theories or
analytical tools?
In Mathematics a special term,
invariance, is used. What is an invariant? In the simplest terms, an invariant
is something that does not change. The invariance is a very powerful property
that allows to address problems with games, colors, symmetry, parity, induction.
A problem of invariance presents many forms, the most difficult thing is to
recognize it.
In object-oriented programming
and functional programming, an "immutable object" is an object whose
state can not be modified once created. An object can be considered immutable,
although some of its internal attributes change, as long as the state of the
object does not seem to change from an external point of view. Immutable
objects are useful because they are safe in multiple and complex environments;
they are also easy to understand and it is easy to reason about them; besides
offering greater security than mutable objects.
In real life, in business, in the
field of scientific research, in any field, data are generated that must be
analyzed to make decisions. The data is organized or distributed so that
conclusions and answers about the content and meaning can be obtained. The most
general distribution is the Normal Distribution Curve, a symmetric, bell-shaped
curve that contains the total data equally distributed on both sides of three
core values (median, and mode). For the population, a
parameter called standard deviation determines to which distance from the
center other values are found. In the curve, the
areas are probabilities calculated between chosen values.
When the real distributions are
not normal, but certain requirements like the Central Limit Theorem are met, it
is possible to approximate or adjust the distributions towards the normal. In a
sense, is the normal distribution like an invariant? Literally, everything can
be explained with its rules.
In today's world, technology has
exponentially multiplied the capacity to generate data. A decade ago, a
megabyte was a great magnitude. Today it hardly equals the content of a high
resolution photo. We are already in the petabyte era, names have been defined
for the new units. The Brontobyte (remembering the brontosaurs?) Is still not
used. Will the normal curve follow its throne, or will it have to be changed?
Is it possible? The "normal
curve of the brontosaurus" is bizarre, unusual, rare, unexpected,
anomalous, abnormal, unusual, strange, infrequent, exceptional, singular, but
is not that also the world? A single example: Couples that go out to lunch,
neither look at each other nor see what they eat; friends who are in a meeting
and nobody could tell how the friend sitting next to him is dressed because
they are absorbed with the toy; people who walk down the street and need clever
sticks like the blind to avoid hitting people or walls. Everything that seemed
exaggerated imagination in the past, is routine today.
