-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Martin,
The intellectual desert is vast. Thinking is hard. Most people dislike thinking. Thinking scientifically and mathematically is even harder. Addressing complex problems is even harder. It's a sad fact. That's why they hire people like us; to solve the difficult problems and make them money. There's a reason why they call us the cognitive elite. :-P - -- Best regards, Justin Lyon M: +423 663 168892 (Worldwide) M: +351 91 9075629 (Lisbon, Portugal) M: +44 781 480 2797 (London, UK) O: +1 210 787-3498 (San Antonio, USA) O: +44 20 8144 4072 (London, UK) E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] W: http://www.simudyne.com Martin C. Martin wrote: > I think Barbie summed it up best: "Math is hard." > > Even most people who are good with computers find math hard. There are > many programmers who have trouble thinking in recursive/dynamic > programming terms, or who have trouble with the sort of simple 3D vector > math found in games. As such, searching for exponentials, or putting > them on the web, just doesn't come up that often. If it did, it would > be a bigger part of HTML/wiki/whatever. > > At least, that's how it looks to me. > > Best, > Martin > > Owen Densmore wrote: >> Some of us have been discussing the relationship between mathematics >> and computation. One particular element of this is how math is a >> second class citizen within the web and computing world. >> >> Its tough for me to send you an equation, for example, one with a >> standard representation and easily input into your particular math >> software (MatLab, Maple, Mathematica). The specialization of math >> software bears this out .. all the packages are quite expensive and >> not particularly interoperable. MathML has not matured and is not >> yet ubiquitous, nor can it be used as input to these math packages. >> TeX can typeset math, but has no semantics tied to it. >> >> One particular example came to me yesterday while thinking about >> searching for certain kinds of exponentials: How would I search for >> an equation on the web, and how could I "grep" through a set of >> papers using a regular expression containing mathematics? >> >> The semantics of mathematical notation has to be considered in regex >> as well: a*b is the same as b*a, and the regex engine would have to >> know that. >> >> I'm wondering if this is just that math has not yet had its day in >> the web sunlight, or it is deeper .. a fundamental problem. >> >> -- Owen >> >> Owen Densmore http://backspaces.net >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFFkzTzhfoqghrmIrARAkAXAJ0Qk8uoCf7NfcRY7CbMKuBMqexdrgCghLbP Mn/Nx8yQoY3T1P6V0Z0yUT8= =zQtF -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
