Metal keys first appeared during the Ancient Roman Empire and were viewed and often flaunted during the period as an indicator of wealth and/or elevated social status, as Ancient Roman keys were typically comprised of bronze or iron, occasionally worn as decorative jewelry (e.g. rings, bracelets, belt attachments etc.), and used primarily to secure high value items (e.g. jewelry boxes, document cases, coin chests etc.) making them both functional tools but also visible reminders of social status and income. Because only the wealthy could afford metal keys within the Ancient Roman Empire, lower socioeconomic classes relied upon more simplistic, wooden lock mechanisms and in many cases left valuable possessions unsecured entirely. Some Ancient Roman keys featured intricate designs (e.g. animal motifs and geometric patterns etc.), personalized and designed to reflect the predilections of the owner of the key and the lock it is designed for. The Latin term for key, which is “clavis”, evolved and came to mean “code” or “solution” over time, which is notable because it demonstrates the period when physical access and security and intellectual access and security became conceptually correlated with one another. Archaeologists and historians have recovered metal keys from Ancient Roman villas, balneae (pronounced “bahl-neh-eye”) which are bathhouses, and burial sites, often discovered alongside personal items (e.g. grooming tools, coins, small religious tokens etc.). The modern day concept of personal security and having exclusive access to one’s belongings and/or information traces its origins back to these early locking mechanisms and keys as what began as a practical intervention for safeguarding valuables laid the foundation for the modern day systems of privacy, ownership, and controlled access to sensitive and/or valuable information or objects
If volume and weight are both calculated as 1 unit, when a cube is made 1 x 1 x 1 when accounting for its length, width, and height, and 1 when accounting for its weight, the entire cube is in equal proportion; a concept referred to as a “unit cube” called as such because each of its dimensions (e.g. height, width, length etc.) are 1 unit in length. This changes however when doubling the cube in size and weight. When doubling the cube to 2 x 2 x 2 when accounting for its length, width, and height, the weight does not move in lockstep, because it becomes 8x (2 x 2 = 4 x 2 = 8). This fundamental mathematical principle referred to as the Square Cube Law, explains why as animals become bigger on land, life becomes exceedingly difficult because of the need to maintain and support the large weight associated with such large stature. As animals become more massive, the effect of gravity places an increasing role in their lives. The shape and form of the body is forced to change. Bones become more massive to scaffold their large bodies. This is why the largest animals on the planet are found within the Earth’s oceans as being within water is a way to circumvent this outcome and helps explain why as animals become larger upon land, life becomes exceedingly difficult because of the need to maintain an appropriate structure and weight associated with such large sizes. This principle also explains why the concept of a giant (e.g. mythology etc.) is physically problematic as if a human being were scaled up proportionally to twice their normal height, their volume and weight would increase 8x, whilst the strength of their bones and muscles would not scale at this same rate. The result would be a life form whose own mass would overwhelm its skeletal structure, making movement, balance, and even basic survival virtually impossible without some form of environmental and/or structural intervention and compensation
