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.