Unfortunately, this abstraction sometimes glosses over practical concerns. “In algebra, X is used to represent the unknown and when you’re taking on huge problems you have be willing to go out into the unknown and try radical new approaches.” Modern use of X can be traced to when marketers were faced with a new challenge - the computer. “Initially the X in ‘Google ’ was a placeholder, but over time it’s become clear that ‘X’ is the perfect name for us as it captures the spirit of what we’re trying to do,” he said. According to Astro Teller, who goes by the title of Captain of Moonshots at X, the name began as a literal placeholder for the company’s more ambitious projects that didn’t necessarily fit into any of the preexisting business lines. Take, for instance, Alphabet Inc.’s division of what they have dubbed “moonshot products,” which is called, succinctly, X. This need for abstraction pretty much set the stage for X’s popularity across the tech world. They could, conceivably, do whatever you wanted them to do - you just needed to find something to do with them first. The name for these machines almost had to be abstract, because what computer manufacturers were selling was the potential to solve some as-yet-unknown future problem. Those marketing standbys broke down when companies like IBM had to decide what to call the things that printed little punched pieces of paper and solved equations but had the power to do much, much more. “Railway X-ing, pedestrian X-ing, deer X-ing, turtle X-ing, and in X-country running and X-country skiing - even in X-dressing.” “X is now routinely read as the word ‘cross’ in compounds,” Chambers said. Eventually, this symbolic representation secularized itself over time to seep into our own speech patterns. Chambers told me that the Christian tradition, viewing the letter as something resembling the cross, used it not only as a letter in words but as a symbol for the cross, and Christ, itself (think of, of course, the X in Xmas). Aesthetics are just one piece of the puzzle. “ two intersecting straight lines, bilaterally symmetrical, dividing its space into quadrants.” What is it about the letter X?īut just because something is “elementary” in this sense doesn’t explain its ubiquity. “For one thing, it is an elemental sign,” Chambers wrote to me in an email. Beyond math, an X came to be used to denote a kiss, a signature, or a place on a map where buried treasure is located (although the phrase “X marks the spot” was first used by Chicago gangsters).Īccording to Jack Chambers, a professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto, it’s the letter’s sheer simplicity that’s allowed it to be so malleable. The French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes use of the letter as one of three glyphs to represent “unknown quantities” in equations is one of the first recorded examples of its cross-utility. The letter X has long acted as a symbol for something more meaningful. But what exactly are all these Xs trying to tell us? And, after all these years, are we any closer to knowing the answer? Today, we see X pinned to any number of products as a sign of some undefined cachet - the mystery of what something you buy, or buy into, can do for you. Until as late as 1806, there were no words in the dictionary that began with the letter X. What is it about the letter X that promises the be-all and end-all of cool? SpaceX. Notice anything all these things have in common? Yes. Maybe you woke up today in a cold sweat, excited to watch your first XFL game. Is it an iPhone X? Maybe you’re in deep on some bitcoin and compulsively checking the price of XɃT.
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