CS and Game Theory
I read Papadimitriou’s article on Algorithms, Games, and the Internet, and found it to be a rather nice overview strongly hinting at future emphasis within the Theoretical Computer Science community. I’ve long thought that a good game theoretic background would…
The Rules of Logic
Taken from Scott Aaronson’s PHYS771 Quantum Computing Since Democritus Propositional Tautologies: A or not A, not(A and not A), etc. are valid. Modus Ponens: If A is valid and A implies B is valid then B is valid. Equality Rules:…
Bayesian Priors and Quantum Mechanics
I was reading The Quantum Times, and it occurred to me that much of the stuff about Alice and Bob sharing a Quantum State, and then Alice changing Bobs particle by measuring hers, strikes me as counter-intuitive. It seems to…
Spoken Math
I uncovered today a small paper note, obviously inspired by my reading of Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, very likely Foundation’s Edge in particular, which I completed last month. I maintain the belief that the world is in need of a mathematical…
Math and Occam’s Razor
In discussion with Ben about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I concluded that the success of mathematical elegance in solutions is a physical manifestation of Occam’s Razor. Indeed, mathematical elegance is to be held above normal logic. As…
Topological Fantasy
There should be a short story or mathematical fantasy book about people that can perform topological transforms on their world simply by thinking through the math. They could fight in topological wars, where quickly finding the inverse is essential to…
The Difference is Zero
What is the difference between nonnegative and positive integers? The element 0. “The difference is 0” is not the same as “There is no difference”.
Illogic Breakthrough
I have made a breakthrough in illogic!! [08:00:38 pm] <FredBarnes2000> I JUST DISCOVERED WHAT IS SO WRONG WITH LOGIC [08:00:57 pm] <FredBarnes2000> the proof by contradiction [08:01:02 pm] <FredBarnes2000> you can’t do that [08:01:22 pm] <FredBarnes2000> you can’t say something…