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☖ Forums → Discussion Forum → Inauguration Day, Inauguration Hooooooraaay!
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Inauguration Day, Inauguration Hooooooraaay!
2017-07-12, 4:56 PM #2961
That's because upper division math is an easy subject (so long as you have an imagination and can accept that you must learn to depend on it as a skill just to get through the material), compared to biochemistry:



Good luck trying to 'imagine' however the **** nature came up with that mess.
2017-07-12, 4:58 PM #2962
Actually I can't help but think that we ought to be thinking about these crazy distributed computing systems being built more along the lines of biology than mathematics....
2017-07-12, 5:32 PM #2963
The first greater than human intelligence will reside in a fungus. Computers should be based on mycelium.

Also on the topic of math I decided I want a PhD and I don't know how to do long division how can I get back up to speed so people can call me dr spook in bed
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-12, 5:52 PM #2964
Originally posted by Spook:
The first greater than human intelligence will reside in a fungus. Computers should be based on mycelium.


Hmm... I wonder if we interrupted any deep thoughts when we killed this one:

Quote:
Is this the largest organism in the world? This 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) site in eastern Oregon had a contiguous growth of mycelium before logging roads cut through it.

Estimated at 1,665 football fields in size and 2,200 years old, this one fungus has killed the forest above it several times over, and in so doing has built deeper soil layers that allow the growth of ever-larger stands of trees.

Mushroom-forming forest fungi are unique in that their mycelial mats can achieve such massive proportions.
2017-07-12, 7:09 PM #2965
Paul Stamets is the ****. I love him so much.

And yes, that was probably a dick move. I think it wasn't dead though just cut in half?
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-12, 8:23 PM #2966
Originally posted by Spook:
Also on the topic of math I decided I want a PhD and I don't know how to do long division how can I get back up to speed so people can call me dr spook in bed


Just practice saying "a solution exists", "is trivial", and "left as exercise", and nobody will ever notice.
2017-07-12, 8:50 PM #2967
I have actually been using the word trivial pretty often in hopes it will get me in the right mindset to CLEP out of a whole maths degree
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-12, 9:02 PM #2968
Originally posted by Spook:
I have actually been using the word trivial pretty often in hopes it will get me in the right mindset to CLEP out of a whole maths degree


  1. lots of women take math, so don't CLEP out of those courses
  2. in light of the above, the important thing to remember is that we choose to do math and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard


N.B.: This post is not meant to be taken seriously. Unless you want to, but I should probably stop posting creepy untested things
2017-07-12, 9:23 PM #2969
This post is meant to be taken seriously:

Placing out of introductory mathematics is a career-ending injury. Don't do it. Not unless it satisfies your mathematics requirement in its entirety and you have neither need for or interest in any other mathematics course.

This was the most common mistake I ever saw. The worst victims were IB/AP students, who weren't mature enough to get the problem under control in time, but it's not much better for anybody else looking to get placed out.
2017-07-12, 9:33 PM #2970
Just today I walked by some highschoolers who were blithely bantering about the calculus BC exam (I never took it). Having been done with high school myself for over a decade, and how I think about subjects like calculus now compared to then, I can only imagine what kind of terrible things their teacher did to their budding minds just to get them to pass the test.
2017-07-12, 10:05 PM #2971
yadda yadda yadda, chain rule, l'hospital's rule, more bull**** to memorize, blah blah blah

If you didn't learn calculus as that cool thing we can do now that we understand real analysis, you probably don't actually understand it.
2017-07-12, 10:26 PM #2972
I am a little embarrassed to say that I haven't read Spivak's much-praised Calculus, but Spook, if you want to know what mathematics really is all about, please do at least try this one out. If you meditate on a good chunk of the problems in this book, I think it will take you far.

The other amusing thing about this book is that it is actually a real analysis book in disguise. Oh, and the problems are very well thought out, and are all there for a reason.
2017-07-12, 10:29 PM #2973
And if you ask, "What are you trying to tell me? That I can fake long division?".

To which I reply: once you read Spivak's chapter 1 on axioms of number systems, you won't have to.
2017-07-12, 11:26 PM #2974
Mathematicians (rightfully) hate arithmetic, so it's unlikely you'll encounter any division that you cannot do in your head.

I think I used long division in a single course, ring theory, and it was polynomial long division. Which, of course, doesn't count.
2017-07-12, 11:44 PM #2975
Mathematics is really about how efficiently you can drink lots of coffee while maintaining baseline health.
2017-07-12, 11:46 PM #2976
That's a terrible idea, even if it's true.
2017-07-12, 11:49 PM #2977
Oh yeah, it's a horrible idea, but we all still end up doing it more than we should.
2017-07-12, 11:53 PM #2978
Don't drink coffee. Good mathematicians drink tea. But then again, maybe that's because they have tenure by then?

Or do it like Yitang Zhang, who finally made his breakthrough on the Twin Prime Conjecture in his head, while sitting pleasantly in his friend's back yard.

2017-07-12, 11:53 PM #2979
(Mathematics:Computer science) is the study of how a handful of simple rules can generate an endless universe of (proofs:programs)
2017-07-12, 11:56 PM #2980
Tea contains both caffeine and L-theanine, the only compounds known to be effective nootropics. But you can always try your luck with amphetamines, I guess. Seemed to work ok for Erdos.
2017-07-12, 11:57 PM #2981
Originally posted by Jon`C:
(Mathematics:Computer science) is the study of how a handful of simple rules can generate an endless universe of (proofs:programs)


Yep!

For a classic example, check out Wolfram's Rule 34.
2017-07-12, 11:59 PM #2982
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
Yep!

For a classic example, checkout Wolfram's Rule 34.


But nobody else's.
2017-07-13, 12:01 AM #2983
(NSFW)

Mathematician Keith Devlin wrote a book once where he summarized mathematics as "the science of patterns". :)

2017-07-13, 12:02 AM #2984
Is there rule 34 rule 34? I guess there must be, it would be silly otherwise.

At any rate, the symmetry ends because we know you only need a single instruction for Turing completeness, but such reasoning is not possible for the axioms of general mathematics.
2017-07-13, 12:04 AM #2985
I feel like "why" is an important enough question that someone has already asked it.
2017-07-13, 12:07 AM #2986
I have to admit, I didn't even look past the joke when I made the CA allusion.
2017-07-13, 12:10 AM #2987
But... as for generating endless universes, Spook--given the mashup erotica you are posting on SoundCloud--I do think you might be amused at the abomination that is the collection of images that were eeked out of Yahoo's open_nsfw discussed in that Hacker News post (click through to the blog post).
2017-07-13, 12:14 AM #2988
SFW:

If you guys haven't seen this (2015), it's pretty tantalizing to see what can be pumped out of Google's deep dream and joined together in a continuous stream (which I am told resembles hallucinations like those from trips on mushrooms or perhaps acid).

Sorry, don't know how to play this video :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCE-QeDfXtA
2017-07-13, 1:09 AM #2989
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
Don't drink coffee. Good mathematicians drink tea. But then again, maybe that's because they have tenure by then?

Or do it like Yitang Zhang, who finally made his breakthrough on the Twin Prime Conjecture in his head, while sitting pleasantly in his friend's back yard.

Which kind of tea?

Also, I have been slowly reading your reply in the languages thread, it's just taking a bit to absorb so I'll be replying when I get it done.
2017-07-13, 1:17 AM #2990
What reply?

(checks)

Ohhhh, that.

I changed my mind, you should write everything in a combination of PHP and Node.js
2017-07-13, 1:21 AM #2991
All kinds of tea, including cookies, muffins, crackers or pita with dips, veggies and fruits, mini sandwiches, popcorn or pretzels or chips.

(It seems to be mostly a social tradition for departments to have tea time weekly or daily.)
2017-07-13, 10:39 AM #2992
Originally posted by Jon`C:
This post is meant to be taken seriously:

Placing out of introductory mathematics is a career-ending injury. Don't do it. Not unless it satisfies your mathematics requirement in its entirety and you have neither need for or interest in any other mathematics course.

This was the most common mistake I ever saw. The worst victims were IB/AP students, who weren't mature enough to get the problem under control in time, but it's not much better for anybody else looking to get placed out.


In my experience, introductory mathematics simply isn't taught properly, unless you happen to get very lucky. The emphasis is on "getting through lots of course objectives", not comprehending the underlying concepts.
2017-07-13, 11:14 AM #2993
Originally posted by Obi_Kwiet:
In my experience, introductory mathematics simply isn't taught properly, unless you happen to get very lucky. The emphasis is on "getting through lots of course objectives", not comprehending the underlying concepts.


Later courses build aggressively upon those course objectives, and you are expected to have a basic understanding of terms and concepts.
2017-07-13, 11:20 AM #2994
Originally posted by Reid:
That's true. There were about 1000 people in my college's (natural sciences) graduating class, and I believe 500 or so were biology majors. Clearly many of them were attempting premed and even more clearly most were not going to medical school.


BLAME THE CIA!
former entrepreneur
2017-07-13, 11:23 AM #2995
And neoliberalism
former entrepreneur
2017-07-13, 11:24 AM #2996
And Russia
former entrepreneur
2017-07-13, 11:29 AM #2997
Originally posted by Eversor:
And neoliberalism


I know you meant this as a joke, but abusing a government granted monopoly to intentionally restrict the supply of doctors and artificially inflate healthcare prices is pretty much a textbook outcome of neoliberalism.
2017-07-13, 1:12 PM #2998
Originally posted by Obi_Kwiet:
In my experience, introductory mathematics simply isn't taught properly, unless you happen to get very lucky. The emphasis is on "getting through lots of course objectives", not comprehending the underlying concepts.

The people who can properly explain why certain algebraic results hold know too much to teach at that level. Instead, in high schools, teachers are often people who don't have mathematics degrees and teach math how they learned math: by memorization.
2017-07-13, 2:20 PM #2999
Turns out that if you can get a billionaire to hire you under a shell company in order to avoid deportation following your firing from the employer who sponsored your original visa, you may yet avoid getting the boot in Trump's America.
2017-07-13, 2:23 PM #3000
ALL CAPS

Quote:
Yiannopoulos clearly understood the Mercers’ support to be more than financial. In the Feb. 27 exchange, Macris asked Yiannopoulos about his immigration status: “Do you presently have a visa permitting you to work in the US? If so, will it still be valid if you are not with Breitbart? ... It is a virtual certainty that if you don’t have a visa you’ll be targeted by the enemy.”

“I AM ON AN O-1B,” Yiannopoulos responded, referring to a special kind of nonimmigrant visa that requires an American sponsor, which had been Breitbart. “I HAVE 57 DAYS LEFT TO FILE A PETITION TO MOVE 0-1B TO NEW SPONSOR IF IT COMES TO IT THE MERCERS WILL PUT ME ON THE BOOKS AT ONE OF THEIR OTHER COMPANIES TO TAKE CARE OF THIS BUT IDEALLY THE NEW BUSINESS WILL DO THIS.

Macris was right to worry. On March 14, the Department of Homeland Security sent Yiannopoulos a Notice of Intent to Revoke his visa, citing his departure from Breitbart as the reason. In a March 23 email titled “URGENT re visa,” Yiannopoulos coordinated the paperwork for his response to DHS.
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