Facts

We live in a quantified, evidence-based world in which more and more of our actions are framed by indicators and figures that support or evaluate them. Basically, our day-to-day experience increasingly looks like a mix of elementary schools where grades rhythm the weeks and scientific laboratories where facts are constantly established through a cascade of numbers. And this is a real progress, isn’t it? What a satisfaction it is, for instance, to fill your empty bottle with fresh water from a fountain that can show you that it, with your help, contributes to the elimination of such a huge amount of plastic waste. Even the skeptics can’t really question the displayed numbers: they are the outcome of the mere addition of physical manifestations translated in units by a basic mechanical sensor. Well, some of these sceptics may ask about the fountain’s words, of course. What “eliminate”, and “waste” and “help” exactly refers to? Come on, these are just words, and who listen to the skeptics, anyway?