A Parable of a Ruler
Once upon a time there was a ruler, a wooden measuring stick. This ruler was carefully wrought by an ingenius woodworker, whose shop was filled with his meticulous creations. The old artisan built everything himself, the building, the tools, and the fruniture. The day he made the ruler, he set it down on the counter and left to the city for supplies.
Magically, the ruler awoke and came to life. This was a strange experience, to be sudenly conscious and alive, and the ruler looked around in astonishment and confusion at the shop, and immediately began searching for answers. How did he get here? Who was he? Where was he?
Being a ruler, of course, he immediately began to go about the shop measuring everything, and observing, seeking to understand his situation. As he did, he began to notice that everything in the shop seemed to have certain things in common. All of the handles on the tools were of the same basic shape and the same size. All of the furniture had a common theme. He was amazed to find that everything in the shop matched exactly with some increment on his graduated side. Everything had a length, width, height, or diameter that corresponded to one of the numbered lines along the length of his body. There were mathematical relationships among all of the things in the shop.
Before long, he had devised elaborate equations to describe the relationships between all of the lengths and widths, and diameters in the shop. These equations explained everything, he thought, even himself. He fit into the equations.
“So that is it,” he thought, “this is why I am here.”
