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WORDS AND REFLECTION It is precisely this aspect that is decisive. The consciousness of the self forces us to a reflective dimension, to look in the mirror, to describe ourselves as we see ourselves, in the multiple representation of ourselves to ourselves, to others, to the world of things. The value of the word has to do with this dimension and is something different from how the word has been lived up to now. Particularly, the beauty of the word is not at stake, but its ability to create life. And it is here, in this rarely touched ravine, that one can understand how an evolutionary dimension, that recognizes the role of a supporting actor or even a substitute for the word, is completely inadequate. Science, in its various articulations, has gone from opening horizons of domination over nature to find in animals an almost identity with the human being: from stars to stables. The brain is the heritage of all living beings, language is common to different species and for people I respect like G. Bateson there is also an epistemology of the chameleon. In this sense, the natural sciences and the human sciences do not appear to be so far away: man who, with God or without God, can reach infinity and can be reduced to a cockroach. From this point of view and from this perspective, we moved in an extraordinary and confused way, managing to recognize the fragility of the human being, but at the same time opening new doors and following paths that were unthinkable even just a short time before. This is how we grew up: slowly, spiraling, with fantastic clarity and sublime confusion. Clarity and confusion cannot be exhaustive and for this I have to make some clarifications. As a species, as humanity, as human beings, there is no doubt that we have grown up and are better off than ever before. As an individual, however, these sentences are incongruous and unsuitable, especially because they go against the thesis and intent of these pages. These last lines have shifted the attention of my thought outside of the protagonist, that is, outside of me. I recognize the limit, but these clarifications really want to prevent the person, concrete and real, which I am, from losing its centrality. I grew up, nourishing myself on everything that the species has produced over the millennia in which it has moved: medicines, means of communication, knowledge, words. Words. From the wheel and medicines to the word. Here is a field of investigation that requires some attention and that, scientifically, must be done on ourselves. I liked, at the time, about the film Blu, centered on the power of music, that it was necessary for the director to end the film with the use of a sentence that would explain to the public the meaning of that film: the creative power of music needed the trigger of the word. For many, mathematics is the universal equivalent, the main tool for everyday life, for the observation of phenomena and for the creation of all that is innovative. With the significant background of the Greek world, when Galileo wrote that the Book of Nature was written in the alphabet of mathematical characters, he gave way to something so important that we still think we cannot do without it. The absolute power of mathematics is now at stake, as Nobel Prize winner R. Laughlin recalls. Mathematics is important and no one wants to question its value, but the loss of its universal character leaves a mark that cannot be indifferent. I will not dwell on this aspect and on the numerous variations it implies, especially on the epistemological side: I want to return instead to the more personal side and in particular on the relationship between words, numbers, symbols and mathematics.