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If anyone wishes to pursue this topic of "quantization" further, I recommend "The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times" - a book by Rene Guenon [1]. Guenon examines the direction the world is going to as a shift from quality to quantity, and with this simple analysis he covers topics ranging across democracy, science, art, crafts, production, etc. The book was written in 1945 and some of the topics he touches upon can at first seem quite esoteric - i.e. that a tendency to measure the effect of some tragedy according to how many people were affected by it is already a sign of quantitative thinking. But I am surprised how well it captured many trends we see in society today. For example it can be argued that under the view he proposed, AI would be yet another step away from quality and towards quantity.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Reign-Quantity-Signs-Times/dp/0900588...




Thank you for that pointer -- the book sounds really interesting and I'd never heard of it, or the writer, before.




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