10 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Asimov Story on Computation
■ N 1958, American science fiction legend Isaac Asimov wrote a very short story called "The Feeling of Power." In it, lowly technician MyI ron Aub discovers that he is capable of duplicating the work of his computer by multiplying two numbers together on a piece of paper. Amazing! This miraculous discovery makes its way up the chain of command, where the generals and politicians are stunned by Aub's black magic. The top general is intrigued by the possibility that human calculations could g... 1 
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notes02 SEP 2016 by ideonexus
Math Games
Buzz. An example of a low-stress, win-win game is Prime Number Buzz. Students stand in a circle or at their desks and go around the room in order, saying either the next sequential number if it is a composite or “buzz” if it is a prime. If they are incorrect, they sit down, but they keep listening and when they catch another student’s error, they stand up and rejoin the game. (The same game format works for Multiples Buzz, using multiples of, for example, 3, 4, and so on.)
Telephone. T...
1 11 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
Curse of the Gifted: Personal Account
I am miles away from Eric or Linus, but the "curse of the gifted" is very real.
Thankfully I wasn't smart or gifted enough that I could ride it for long, but when it comes to math and problem-solving I rode it well into my high school years. I never learned to do algebra "by the book," because I didn't need to. Or maybe because I wasn't smart enough to.
The math teacher would teach "3x 6 = 9." Basic algebraic problem-solving says you subtract the 6 from both sides, then divide by 3. So "3...
2 A reply to the article, personal anecdote.
07 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Aliens to Humans as Humans to Chimpanzees
know what you're thinking: we're smarter than bacteria.
No doubt about it, we're smarter than every other living creature that ever walked, crawled, or slithered on Earth. But how smart is that? We cook our food. We compose poetry and music. We do art and science. We're good at math. Even if you're bad at math, you're probably much better at it than the smartest chimpanzee, whose genetic identity varies in only trifling ways from ours. Try as they might, primatologists will never get a chim... 1 notes
notesIf small genetic differences separate us from our closest evolutionary relative, then alien brains could easily be vastly superior to ours
14 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Logic and Math are the Rules We Work Within
The principles of logic and mathematics are true universally simply because we never allow them to be anything else. And the reason for this is that we cannot abandon them without contradicting ourselves, without sinning against the rules which govern the use of language, and so making our utterances self-stultifying. In other words, the truths of logic and mathematics are analytic propositions or tautologies.Folksonomies: mathematics logic
Folksonomies: mathematics logic
1 notes
notesThey cannot be anything other than universally true.
21 APR 2011 by ideonexus
Jamie Zawinski on Different Kinds of Programming
There's obviously different kinds of programming. Without people who are not like me none of this would exist. But I've always seen much more in common with writing prose than math. It feels like you're writing a story and you're trying to express a concept to a very dumb person-the computer—who has a limited vocabulary. You've got this concept you want to express and limited tools to express it with. What words do you use and what does your I thing. Folksonomies: programming computer science
Folksonomies: programming computer science
Programming has much in common with prose.
21 APR 2011 by ideonexus
Programming as the Fifth Discipline
Seibel: You mention four disciplines: music, graphics, mathematics, and text those are about as old as humanity. Clearly there are powerful ideas there that are independent of computers—the computer just provides a way to explore them that might be hard without the computer. Is there also a set of interesting, powerful ideas inherent in the computer? Is programming or computer science another deep discipline—a fifth area we can only do we have computers?
Ingalls: Yes, I think that's wha...Dan Ingalls sees computer programming taught along with math, music, graphics and text, with computers bringing the other four together within it.
03 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Computer Programming Brings Complex Thought to the Masses
Omni: Does that limit the number of people who can contribute, or even understand what's being done?
Feynman: Or else somebody will develop a way of thinking about the problems so that we can understand them more easily. Maybe they'll just teach it earlier and earlier. You know, it's not true that what is called "abstruse" math is so difficult. Take something like computer programming, and the careful logic needed for that--the kind of thinking that mama and papa would have said was only for ...A half century ago, the logic required to do computer programming was considered something only professors could do, now everyone does it.
01 JAN 2010 by ideonexus
Nothing is Fun Until You're Good at It
What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up. But if done properly, the Chinese strategy produces a virtuous circle. Tenacious practice, ...Folksonomies: parenting
Folksonomies: parenting
A meme about the difference between Chinese and Western mothers, where Chinese mothers force their children to keep at tasks until they master them.
