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Prime and Prejudice
Opinion | Articles | Victor Ferrao | 15-Apr-2021
The number theory is profoundly educative. Some of the mathematicians call it as the queen of mathematics. Within the numbers, the Greek identified the prime numbers. Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), made great contributions to number theory, particularly to our understanding of prime numbers. We may ask: why are prime numbers are known as prime? We find the definition of prime numbers in famous book, the Elements written by Euclid. Euclid taught that a prime number is measured by a unit alone. We may replace the term measured by the term divisible. It simply tells us prime numbers are not multiples of any other numbers. A prime number has only one proper factor and that is one. They are like 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and so on. This means these numbers can only be divided by one and themselves. Aristotle thought that the unit as not being a number but a beginning of the number. This is why the term prime/ protos came to name these numbers. This means prime numbers are first numbers from which all other numbers arise. Thus, say 6 arises as a factor of 2x3 or 5x2 gives us ten. Thus from the point of multiplication, prime numbers are first numbers. They are numbers from which every other number is generated.
Prime numbers belong to pure mathematics but they have found their applications in cryptography. British mathematician, Marcus du Sautoy, in his book, the Music of Prime says, ‘ prime numbers are the very atoms of mathematics. The prime numbers 2, 3, and 5 are hydrogen, helium and lithium in the mathematician’s laboratory. Mastering these building blocks offers the hope of recovering new ways ... through the vast complexities of the mathematical world’. This means there may be other applications besides cryptography. The field is open for both discovery and innovation in this field. There is a hunt for largest known prime numbers and there are software’s like GIMPS to lead it. GIMPS has already discovered a twenty million digit prime number. Cryptography is based on principle: multiplying two numbers is easy and factoring two numbers is hard. In cryptography we take two prime numbers, p and q. N=pq. The value N is public information. But it is difficult to trace p and q, since it is difficult to find p and q as it has many possibilities.
Can prime numbers inspire us to understand how prejudice of racism, casteism, nationalism or identity politics work? It is possible. All these exclusive claims are actually claims for primacy. This is why these claims for primacy manifest in complex behaviours that are called in some research circles as priming. There are already attempts to measure prejudice. The implicit or unconscious level of prejudice towards a group is denoted as prime. People who act on their prime are said to be priming. Scholars target these primes and priming by using statistical methods to measure implicit prejudices that manifest automatically without reflections in people. Often an examination of the way stereotyping manifests can also demonstrate the existence of unconscious prejudice. Thus, we always link/ associate the word weak with female or poor with the term black. This kind of stereotyping can reveal how unconscious prejudice works among individuals. It is called associative co-occurrence. Such an associative co-occurrence model of priming enables us to measure the prejudice at work among individuals. This means we internalize the prejudices embedded in the culture that brings us up. Thus, prime in this context is a smallest unit of measurement of unconscious level of prejudice. Based on it, we can identify different types of primes or biases at work and use social research methods to determine and measure their existence in a particular society.
It is easy to study stereotype-priming but is difficult to do the same with non-stereotype-priming though there are attempts to study the same. We can examine the relative presence and strength of stereotype priming like the bias against a community in a society that is exhibiting high levels of identity politics based on ethnicity, religion, culture, region etc. But there are also non-stereotype-priming that are not do not exhibit a set structure or prime. These kinds of non-stereotype biases primarily occur due to varied reasons. In some cases they occur due to painful, traumatic or humiliating events in the past of an individual or a community. The pain and humiliation is felt as loss of something precious which then sets in a recovery dynamism. Priming as prejudice then erupts even against an innocent individual or community who becomes a victim of what Freud calls projection and is deemed as guilty of the crimes that brought in pain, trauma and shame and is thought to be worthy to be condemned so that peace and tranquility returns. But unfortunately, these kinds of priming sets in a chain of violence and peace remain forever a dream.
Our reflection of the prime numbers therefore has a lot to teach us. The indivisibility of the prime numbers could teach us unity is strength and help us to remain united without divisions. But we refuse to belong to all. We are not happy to rise beyond our petty worlds of ethnicities, religions, cultures, regions, race, caste, gender etc. We find security in our small worlds and often prefer conflict, strive and discrimination. We consider these small units to which we belong as a measure of everything. Our culture, ethnicity, religion, region etc therefore become prime to us. We then enter into a dynamics of priming that renders others as less than us to cement our prime position. Using subtraction, division and zerofication (multiplying by zero) against others, we attempt to guard our primacy in the scheme of things of our society. Thus, priming becomes a way of sustaining our claims for primacy in our society. We have to agree that our society and our world are afflicted by the complex and egocentric phenomena of priming. The title of this reflection is inspired by the famous Pride and prejudice of Jane Austen. It is my humble attempt to understand how prejudice operates in a stereotypical and non-stereotypical ways to impoverish our life and our world. we can also see how prime and prejudice is connect to pride and prejudice as priming is only a quest to build and maintain a position of pride. It is time to take charge of our life and reverse the phenomenon of priming and embrace peace and harmony for all.
(The Author is a Priest in the Archdiocese of Goa, Daman and Diu, and a Professor in Rachol Seminary. Views expressed are personal)
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