PC OUTLINE

Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 16, 2024 at 09:23 AM

Love it! Funnily enough, I’ve started looking at maths again as something I really ought to get a once-and-for-all grip on (inasmuch as this is possible – the very fact that I’m saying that brands me indelibly as a rank mathematical amateur!)

I read for much the same reason: Charles Stross, Neal Stephenson, Cory Doctorow and the amazing qntm (for goodness’ sake read “There is no antimemetics division”!) are so mind-boggling brilliant and stimulating that I find myself rushing off to examine their various clever logical/mathematical/conceptual games from multiple angles. Stross’s first Laundry Files book in particular is so full of abstruse maths premises that I still haven’t worked out exactly what he’s saying – but he manages, like Stephenson at his best (Cryptonomicon), to combine rapid action with serious intellectual brainfodder.

qntm just has a totally extraordinary mind.

As it happens, I hadn’t heard of the George R.R. Martin novel – I shall go away and find it!

Thanks for the stimulating thoughts, everybody! I’m approaching mid-60s, so mental stimulus is always much appreciated!!!

Amontillado wrote:
Thanks, MadaboutDana - I read a description and The Laundry Files sound
>fascinating.
> >Regarding rage against the candle burning low, I’ve recently redeveloped
>an interest in math.
> >I’m tired of being math-stupid, but there’s another reason. I want the
>mental calisthenics to toughen up against the onset of years.
> >Is it working? get back with me in my 90’s. My Mom could add six digit
>numbers in her head while hearing them at a conversational pace at age
>90.
> >So far, my Kahn Academy courses are recreation, sort of like Sudoku, and
>I’ve found interesting things particularly about triangles. For
>instance, a consequence of the law of sines is that (ab)/hc (a times b
>divided by the height to the third side) is a constant. At this point I
>believe my nearly 70 years have not dimmed my dome light.
> >It’s also interesting how much really, really old tech is in daily use,
>even by the most enlightened of Gen-Z hipsters. Assuming, of course,
>hipster is not an anachronism when applied to Gen-Z. I’ll ask Nurse
>Ratched when she comes by with my meds.
> >MadaboutDana wrote:
>I dunno, I can think of worse ways to rage against the dying of the
>>light… ;-)
>>
>>What you need, Listerene, is to discover the Laundry Files series by
>>Charles Stross. Actually, all us Boomers need to read it. It’s
>>very, very salutary…
>>
>>Listerene wrote:
>>>PC-Outline isn’t how you
>>>rage against the dying of the light.