Measuring the Mona Lisa

I’ve been writing lately about measurement, and that we should think of measurement as the reduction of uncertainty, not as the application of precision.

One of the main pushbacks that I get on measurement of either type is that measurement somehow steals the magic from something.

For example, I could measure the Mona Lisa’s face, and say that her face is 20 centimeters wide, and the pushback would be that somehow this makes me appreciate the painting less.

I would be impressed if measurement was so powerful that by simply using it, we could hijack magic.

However, I have never met a human who, after learning the size of the Mona Lisa’s face, stopped appreciating the painting.

I have also never met a human who said, “The Mona Lisa is nice, but I prefer portraits where the face is between 21 and 40 centimeters in width.”

I highly suspect that if we start using measurement more, the world will not be stripped of magic.

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