S asked G.H. Eckel:

How did the idea for Numbered come to you?

G.H. Eckel I had just taken a standardized test that was to provide insight for others I work with about my personality. The result was " 5 5 4 2". Really. Those numbers referred to 4 spectrums of personality characteristics. Everyone had those numbers in their email signatures. It reminded me of the time I got my SAT scores, ACT scores, IQ score, career assessment test results. I immediately resisted every single one. How can they not be arbitrary on some level and reductionist? "Hi, my name is 5 5 4 2." I realized my reaction was not personal; it's part of what it is to be human: to resist being pigeon-holed. When I latch onto something that's larger than myself, I know I have something interesting. I'm always interested in the human spirit and what it takes to move humanity forward, even just an inch. When I thought of how many numbers are attached to me, SS#, driver's license, credit card number, and how everything I do is tracked by computers so people can "know" me and thereby sell me something they think "my kind of person" will want, I saw our world going inhuman. We all want to come to "know ourselves." But every answer is either fleeting or smaller than who we really are. So, I latched onto that irony and wrote about a world that extrapolated those ideas to the extreme so that all of us can have a new perspective of what's important and where we are headed.

Best wishes!

5 5 4 2

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