Zero, One, Infinity
I have been thinking considerably about a very diverse range of historical data and I am discovering some patterns I haven’t seen presented before. In relational database design there is an assertion that there are only three important values: zero, one and infinity. I have been thinking about scales of measure and the significance of these scales. We create all kinds of scales on all kinds of base number systems. However, these are all subdivisions of a continuum at which zero is at one end and infinity at the other.
In the above graph we have two dimensions on a zero, one, infinity scale. If you think about this in the context of minimum, medium and maximum, we have a new way to represent them. The graph coordinates are two dimensional, but any number of dimensions can be represented in this fashion. If the System International Units of Measure are correct there are ultimately only seven units of which everything else is a derivative. My proposal is that minimum, medium and maximum be represented by the three icons I am presenting here and that all scales be abstracted for representation accordingly.
Linear
Exponential
Sine
Radial
