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John Baez’s “Mathematics in the 21st century” talk
John Baez’s “Mathematics in the 21st century” talk
25th of March, 2021. Part of the Topos Institute Colloquium. ----- Abstract: The climate crisis is part of a bigger transformation in which humanity realizes that the Earth is a finite system and that no physical quantity can grow exponentially forever. This transformation may affect mathematics — and be affected by it — just as dramatically as the agricultural and industrial revolutions did. After a review of the problems, we discuss how mathematicians can help make this transformation a bit easier, and some ways in which mathematics may change.
·youtube.com·
John Baez’s “Mathematics in the 21st century” talk
how to do nothing
how to do nothing
When you collect marine animals there are certain flat worms so delicate that they are almost impossible to capture whole, for they break and tatter under the touch. You must let them ooze and crawl of their own will onto a knife blade and then lift them gently into your bottle of sea water. And perhaps that might be the way to write this book — to open the page and let the stories crawl in by themselves. ​ Her purpose in this project is to bring to the attention of the whole community, art that exists in its own context, ​ The artist creates a structure — whether that’s a map or a cordoned-off area — that holds open a contemplative space against the pressures of habit and familiarity that constantly threaten to close it. ​ Actually, I’ve always found it weird that it’s called birdwatching, because half if not more of birdwatching is actually birdlistening. I personally think they should just rename it birdnoticing. ​ That ended up being two years. I recently asked him how he spent that time, and his answer was that he read a lot, rode his bike, studied math ​ In nature, things that grow unchecked are often parasitic or cancerous. And yet, we inhabit a culture that privileges novelty and growth over the cyclical and the regenerative. Indeed our very idea of productivity is premised on the idea of producing something new, whereas we do not tend to see maintenance and care as productive in the same way.
·medium.com·
how to do nothing
#94: Plastic Beach
#94: Plastic Beach
Maybe, to a more advanced civilization, our trash and ruins would just be invisible, the way so much of what we call nature is invisible to us. The concept of nature, in a sense, is a way to describe or categorize what is outside the scope of human agency or immediate understanding, and that scope is always shifting, frequently in unintended directions.
·kneelingbus.substack.com·
#94: Plastic Beach