Numbers game

As the number of days to Paris decreases, Filipino qualifiers increased. The country sends at least 22 athletes. Five boxers, four gymnasts, three track and field athletes, three weightlifters, two golfers, two swimmers, a rower, a fencer and a judoka comprise the country s biggest delegation since 1992 in Barcelona where 26 athletes competed but went home with a solitary bronze.

Size does not matter. It is not about quantity but quality and many more in between and beyond. The country sent a dozen to Atlanta in 1996, one of the fewest, but Onyok Velasco thrilled the nation to a golden flirtation.

It increased to 20 in Sydney 2000, but no one reprised the Atlanta silver, nether gold nor bronze. Same story every four years after. 15 in Athens and Beijing and 11 in London but no medal arrived home.

The 13 in Rio 2016 proved lucky. Hidilyn Diaz ended the medal drought with a silver. Five years later she turned her silver to gold in Tokyo. It is where the country performed best with a gold, two silver and a bronze. With 19 athletes. The more entries, the more chances of winning. Ratio and proportion.

Not quite, a number of variables factor, luck included. Or destiny, all things being equal. It also speaks volumes about the country s sports program. Regional powerhouse Thailand sends 47 to Paris, Indonesia 28 and Malaysia 25. Population does not count. The city state Singapore of 6 million people is sending 22, tying the Philippines with more than a hundred million body count.

Just a number though, the refuge of the ageing who clings to faith in turning back time, not the aged, they have accepted their fate. Definitely not Alex Eala, she may be young but not her wisdom. She now knows rank is just on paper. The tennis prodigy is no longer scared of the numbers, she just scores the points.

Just as in QS world rankings among universities, the University of San Carlos may be behind four schools in Manila, but it has occupied bigger space and gained more weight in the world academic community, with or without reference to how science defines matter. Regardless, it now matters more than ever.

Especially for Carolinians who this month reunite in their alma mater and remind each other of their fondest memories in school, including vivid details that disturb the unprepared livid. But the batch mates with so much to reconnect are those who belong to a generation without mobile phones. Their memory bank is their heart, mind and soul, not a gadget of virtual proximity, memory and logic.

Artificial intelligence seriously threatens the human race, its creativity, originality, rationality and authenticity. And sensitivity. Humanity has become dangerously intelligent it created the cause of its early death. Or slow death. The one that kills the living without dying. That is why schools and universities, ranked or unranked, should be more obsessed with producing graduates who make a difference in a world of indifference.