i exists just as much as 2 exists. Or just as little as 2 exists, if you want to look at it that way.

I used to have a mathy sort of brain, but I've been away from it so long I think it's atrophied.

I had a joke to type about getting distracted, but I got distracted and now I can't remember what it was.

i exists just as much as 2 exists. Or just as little as 2 exists, if you want to look at it that way.

So, what I'm getting is that i is a hidden doorway to Negative Land, somwhere between A and B?

I'm very late on this, due to stoopid new filters at work, but {{{{Gud}}}}

Love the stories, P-C. Also, I don't know if this is any help, but a few years ago I decided that although I had no idea of what I wanted to do in my life, I knew I didn't want to keep doing what I was doing in my dead-end job. Since I worked in a library, I decided to go to library school. I researched schools, chose some to apply to, applied, was accepted, gave notice at work, held garage sales to get rid of stuff, packed up and moved about as far away as is possible while staying in the same country (from Anchorage to Syracuse). When it came time to change planes in Detroit, I literally had to force myself, step by step, to get on the correct plane, because I wanted nothing more than to book another flight home. When I arrived in Syracuse, it was hot, muggy and dusty. When I got to campus, I found that services were closing for the weekend. I knew no one, could not dial out on my phone, had no transportation because public transit was down to my area for the weekend, and no idea of where anything was anyway. I was so miserable that I pretty much cried myself through the weekend.

The following week, I started classes. After the first class, a bunch of us were walking towards cars and apartments, chatting, and I realized for the first time that I had made the right decision and this really was what I wanted to do with my life. Syracuse didn't get any better (I hope that I'm not offending anyone, but it's the armpit of New York), but it was a great education and I'm glad I went.

I tell this whole story to say that while it may be confusing and scary right now, I truly do believe that it will work out in the long run. If you know, deep down, that you've made the right decision, great. If not, it will come to you. Or, if this turns out to not be what you want to do with your life, then you'll change your mind and do something else. We're all faking our way through, and changing your mind is allowed. I know this is long, but I hope it helps a little. If not, please ignore, because I'm sure you'll do just fine.

ION: Panic attacks are no fun, and everyone who gets them has my deepest sympathies.

So, what I'm getting is that i is a hidden doorway to Negative Land, somwhere between A and B?

Well, numbers are arbitrary. We decided that two apples are two apples and not, say, four apples. All that matters is that we're internally consistent within the system we've devised. One day someone tried to come up with the square root of -1 and realized he couldn't do it. So he said, fuck it, let's call it i. Time for a beer.

I think that's how it went down.

ETA: Thanks, libkitty.

Erin, I edited your post because you're left an t i unclosed. Which segues neatly into answering Lee's list question:

As well as the quickedit
*
which turns
* items into

• items

You can use
i text
to italicise text, Erin, or
> to perform traditional quoting like

traditional quoting.

Thanks, ita. So (doohickey i doohickey) does italics, but what does the trad quotes> I've never been able to figure that one out.

And so i is basically -- we don't know -- it's i?

Oh, by the way, it appears I should live in Vermont or Oregon, both states that I enjoy thoroughly, have lived in before, and would not mind living in again. The rest of New England and, apparently, one town in Wisconsin, are runners-up. For some reason, Alaska does not appear to exist, which is kind of funny because I love Juneau with a passion, except for the ice.

Well, numbers are arbitrary. We decided that two apples are two apples and not, say, four apples. All that matters is that we're internally consistent within the system we've devised.

Isn't it more that *numbers* are constant -- 2 apples will always be 2 apples and not twice as many, not ever -- but that the *symbols* used to describe them are arbitrary? The 2, the 4, the i?

OK, the best sort of example that I can come up with is that there are some problems in engineering and physics where, within solving the problem, you need to find the solutions to some equations like ax^2 + bx + c = 0, and then take those solutions and plug them into some other formula. The numbers you started out with are all real numbers, and the numbers you'll get, once you're done with everything you're doing, will be real numbers, but at that step, the solutions to that ax^2 + bx +c = 0 equation might be complex. If you limit yourself to the real number system, you'll get to that equation, and then you'll have to say "This equation has no solutions," and you won't be able to go any further. If you look at the complex solutions, you'll be able to continue with the bigger problem.