Indeed, one could define science as reason’s attempt to compensate for our inability to perceive big numbers. If we could run at 280,000,000 meters per second, there’d be no need for a special theory of relativity: it’d be obvious to everyone that the faster we go, the heavier and squatter we get, and the faster time elapses in the rest of the world. If we could live for 70,000,000 years, there’d be no theory of evolution, and certainly no creationism: we could watch speciation and adaptation with our eyes, instead of painstakingly reconstructing events from fossils and DNA.

From an essay by Scott Aaronson, "Who Can Name the Bigger Number?" The essay traces the history of really big non-infinite numbers, and explains why it's important that we try to conceive these numbers.

Liked what you read? I am available for hire.