0,1 (and other states)

New poem out from Orion’s Beau, just in time for Pride

Are you an infinite being?

My new poem out now in Orion’s Beau (just in time for Pride), tackles the many dimensions of binary systems–part gender identity, part mathematical modeling, part homage to the extraordinary Virginia Woolf.

On the math side, logistic modeling builds on states of 0 (no) and 1 (yes). It’s a system constrained by these anchors–datasets with binary variables contain columns and columns of 0s and 1s.

But what I do most often with binary outcome variables is calculate the odds ratio. For lower odds (protective effects in medicine and public health), the system remains constrained, bound by the null (no association, which is an OR of 1.0) and 0. But for higher odds, the system is unbound above the null. It can expand to infinity.