Scale requires abstraction

A general moves a wooden piece two inches on a map, a million men march into France. The physical effort required is nothing, a child could make the same movement. But it triggers days of violence that reshapes Europe.

It's the only way a human brain can coordinate a million of anything.

Symbols, maps, software, algorithms. They're abstractions that compress reality into something our brains can handle.

Every massive human achievement and every massive human horror required abstraction.