Monthly Archives: August 2012

There is something both appealing and repellent in the idea that our “modern” attitudes are prefigured in the work of ancient philosophers. It is exciting to find a voice from the past that feels like “one of us” but at … Continue reading →

This, and especially this, reminds me of something I did long ago which, it turned out, had already been done by Hepp expanding on von Neumann’s treatment of the measurement problem. The idea was to explain “collapse” of the superposition … Continue reading →

This article by Melanie Fahlman Reid came out while my brother Tony and I were up in Haida Gwaii and by coincidence the guesthouse where we were staying had a book about the various kinds of (mis)representation by photographers “documenting” … Continue reading →

Among the many fond recollections that followed the recent death of William Thurston, I came across a reference to this article on proof and progress in mathematics. Thurston, a geometer of great insight and also I think a great contributor … Continue reading →

This recent discussion on LinkedIn asks for applications of complex numbers which can be explained to High-School students. The case of AC electric circuits is one familiar application which was mentioned by several respondents and one of them pointed to … Continue reading →

This is just a prompt for me to consider the issue. It’s very far from “right” for me but does contain some points I agree with.

Stephen Downes has commented on a discussion of free speech issues at the University of California but I think his focus on intended harm as the only excuse for restricting freedom of speech is too limited.