Monthly Archives: April 2009
Sic transit
The tattered magazine shown above was on newsstands 60 years ago. You could have bought a copy for 50 cents—which wasn’t cheap at the time. The article featured on the cover, “Mathematical Machines,” surveys the whole topic of computational technology, … Continue reading
Posted in science
13 Comments
The control room
My “Computing Science” column in the new issue of American Scientist looks at economics—including the current malaise—through the lens of control theory. This is not a new idea. The Keynesian prescription for smoothing out cycles of boom and bust is … Continue reading
Posted in modern life
1 Comment
Himalayan mathematics
Browsing through some notes I jotted down sometime in 1988, I come upon this sentence: Mathematicians feel about computers much as the Nepalese feel about jet aircraft. Did I read that somewhere, or did I make it up? My notes … Continue reading
Posted in computing, mathematics
5 Comments
Bits from its
Sometime in the early 1980s my friend Greg Chaitin decided to go digital. He wanted to have all of his own writings, along with some other documents he particularly valued, ready at hand in machine-readable form. This was long before … Continue reading
Posted in computing, modern life
4 Comments
Pub date
For those of you who have been waiting patiently for the paperback edition of Group Theory in the Bedroom, and Other Mathematical Diversions: It’s finally here. Today is the official release date. For those of you waiting for the movie … Continue reading
Posted in books
2 Comments
Computing in the classroom
As the students file into the classroom, each of them reaches into a basket by the door and selects a ticket, on which a number is printed. For convenience, let’s assume the numbers are integers, they’re of reasonable size, and … Continue reading
Posted in computing
13 Comments