Paradox of interesting numbers

Each human being is interesting

Recently, I stumbled upon an interesting article on Wikipedia about the paradox of interesting numbers.

The interesting number paradox is a mathematical paradox that came into existence when two mathematicians G.H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan were discussing about interesting and uninteresting numbers.

G.H. Hardy told Ramanujan, “The taxicab number 1729 seems uninteresting”. To which, Ramanujan contradicted that it is interesting as it is the smallest number which is the sum of two cubes in 2 different ways.

This paradox attempts to classify the natural numbers into interesting and uninteresting set of numbers and the mathematical proof was given by contradiction.

Suppose we have a set of uninteresting natural numbers but the smallest number in that set would be interesting as it is the smallest number and thus raising a contradiction.

The source shows the unique qualities of first 1000 natural numbers.

0 is the additive identity. 1 is the multiplicative identity. 2 is the only even prime. 3 is the number of spatial dimensions we live in. 4 is the smallest number of colors sufficient to color all planar maps. 5 is the number of Platonic solids. 6 is the smallest perfect number. 7 is the smallest number of sides of a regular polygon that is not constructible by straightedge and compass. 8 is the largest cube in the Fibonacci sequence. 9 is the maximum number of cubes that are needed to sum to any positive integer. 10 is the base of our number system.

Learning from this Mathematical paradox

Every human being is interesting. We need to introspect to explore the talent we have been blessed with.

If somehow it has been forgotten or lost, we need to re-ignite the spark and make it interesting.

If the numbers that are infinite in nature can be interesting, us finite mortals are surely as interesting and special in our own unique way.

Each human being is unique, each with their own qualities, instincts, forms of pleasure, and desire for adventure. However, society always imposes on us a collective ways of behaving, and people never stop to wonder why they should behave like that. They just accept it, the way typists accepted the fact that the QWERTY keyboard was the best possible one. Have you ever met anyone is your entire life who asked why the hands of a clock should go in one particular direction and not the other?

— Paulo Coelho

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