[FRIAM] what is math?

This essay seems like a literate summary of discussions that Friam's chaotic orbits have visited from time to time. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/what-is-mathematics May you dream that you are awake. -- rec -- - . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. . .-. . FRIAM Applied

Re: [FRIAM] what is math?

Reuben Hersh, who came to.Friam a couple of times and us well-known to some of us, wrote a book with the title "What is Mathematics, Really" which presents one point of view. I believe the Platonic position appeals to me the most. All right triangles have the Pythagorean property regardless. F

Re: [FRIAM] what is math?

Roger, This is great! I love the Darwin quote: He is supposed to have concluded that “a mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn’t there.” It sounds apochrophal to me, but I will take it. n Nick Thompson

Re: [FRIAM] what is math?

Thanks, Roger. I appreciate the aphorisms that attempt to place mathematics in the context of a larger human project: - The largest coherent artifact that’s been built by civilization. - The longest continuous human thought. but then also, by contrast: - A proto-text whose existence is only post

Re: [FRIAM] what is math?

Or how about, "The easiest problems humanity has to solve". -- Sent from: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ - . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. . .-. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mail

Re: [FRIAM] what is math?

REC - I particularly appreciated the second paragraph riff on "what is mathematics".  Out of the dozen(s) of statements, I couldn't find any I patently disagreed with, though some felt more meaningful/relevant than others. Even more perhaps, I appreciate your characterization of our perigrination

Re: [FRIAM] solving mazes

I want to push this conversation about mazes a bit. So, we a visual creatures and we tend to understand mazes as a visual problem, not a tactile or olfactory problem. The rat brings to a maze all sorts or skills that humans do not. So wall following is just a matter of putting the vibrissae o

Re: [FRIAM] solving mazes

Ok, so getting rid of the walls altogether can we imagine these as SteveG's ants? Is there anything more to it? -- Sent from: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ - . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. . .-. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.

Re: [FRIAM] solving mazes

Well, except that mazes vastly reduce the number of possibilities and ought, therefore, to be way simpler than the ant problem Also, I think that rats get a bit more information from their olfactory cues than steve's ants do. On the other hand, there are many ants working at once, and we are conc

Re: [FRIAM] what is math?

Nice article. Steven Strogatz would say it is "the joy of x" - the name of one of his books and his podcast (recommendable by the way)https://www.quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-x-J. Original message From: Roger Critchlow Date: 3/2/21 15:51 (GMT+01:00) To: The Friday Mornin

Re: [FRIAM] solving mazes

Constructing a maze by removing walls and finding a path through a maze are very similar and can be done by recursion or backtracking, both of which are equivalent to a mouse leaving his scent along a path and then backing up to a place opening without a scent when it hits a dead end. Ed >

Re: [FRIAM] Vax by nation

Yes we are all hoping to get a vax-by-nation just waiting inline for that. On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 7:56 PM Tom Johnson wrote: > > https://www.visualcapitalist.com/covid-19-vaccine-doses-whos-got-at-least-one/ > > - . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity

[FRIAM] Ramsey a pragmatist mathmatician?

Friammers, >From a review by Kieran Setiya of Cherl Misak's FRANK RAMSEY: A SHEER EXCESS OF POWERS. Oxford, 500 pp, 25# which appears in the feb 18 issue of the London Review of Books. No, I don't read it. My wife does, though. Drawing on the American pragmatist C. S. Peirce, he appl

Re: [FRIAM] Ramsey a pragmatist mathmatician?

"Suppose aliens invade the earth and threaten to obliterate it in a year's time unless human beings can find the Ramsey number for red five and blue five. We could marshal the world's best minds and fastest computers, and within a year we could probably calculate the value. If the aliens demanded t