We were supposed to write about three "How to..." blog posts. I have some ideas, but they remain nebulous now: I could write a "How to..." post on "How to Be Good at Math at Any Level," or "How to Cope with Bipolar Disorder," or "How to Read a Person Like a Book." Of these three, the reading a person like a book will be the hardest for me. Indeed, such a post will likely be full of irony, since I read books better than people. So, without further ado, I present

How to Be Good at Math at Any Level

Introduction

Mathematics is a discipline; indeed, it is the discipline, since the word mathematics comes from the Greek mathein, or "to discipline." So, in order to be good at math, one needs to be a good disciple. We need to be able to listen or otherwise receive teaching, whether it be from a teacher or from nature itself. Humility is very important in mathematics, because we are bound to make mistakes. This is in contrast to the popular perception of math, in which everything has to be precise and, dare we say it, correct. Nothing can be further from the truth, for mathematics rests on nothing.

We begin with the empty set { }. Is the set something, or is it not? We assume that it contains nothing, so if there's nothing to talk about, then we are done. However, if the empty set is something, then we can construct another set containing it: {{}}, and from there another set with different elements, {{},{{}}}, and so forth. It is possible this way to construct the entire set of natural numbers N={0,1,2,3...}, and from the set of natural (counting) numbers N to construct the set of real numbers R. Obviously, the latter approach has more describing power than the former, but there is no way to truly distinguish between the two approaches, because we could just as easily say that nothing can contain nothing, and say that something is nothing.

Personally, I don't like such a nihilistic approach to mathematics, so I prefer to make distinctions between something and nothing, or make a distinction between a bag and its contents.

How do we become good at math? We need make as few assumptions as possible, so that we can maximize the number of propositions. This is every bit as true in the field of math as it is in real life. Preconceived notions more often than not hold us back.

What I Believe

It has been said that knowledge can improve the quality of life for both individuals and communities. I have few beliefs in politics or mankind, but I subscribe to the philosophy that knowledge is power, and that using the power of knowledge has more benefits than drawbacks. For example, the misapplication of science has brought about unparalleled suffering – nuclear weapons and genetic engineering for warfare. However, proper use of scientific knowledge applied to medicine and sanitation has benefited mankind far more than scientific warfare has harmed us over the last 100 years.

My personal quest for knowledge began in elementary school, when I decided to first become a scientist. I quickly realized that I had gifts regarding mathematics, languages, and visual arts. In kindergarten, I could count to one thousand, and I could read at a fifth grade level, even though I did not speak at all until I was seven years old. By the time I reached middle school, I had managed to overcome my fear of algebra. Today, I am a mathematics major.

If knowledge truly is power, then I must find a way to continue to learn and apply that knowledge to real world situations. For example, I would like to improve the political system of this nation by becoming a political consultant or a constitutional scholar. I might one day apply my mathematics skills to the creation of a new electoral system for Congress and the state legislatures; for the most important feature of any constitution is the way it represents the people.

Language is the power that makes us truly human – the ability to make meaningful, advanced contact compared to the other animals. For me as an autistic, this is a hard thing to develop well: so much of language is actually non-verbal, with tones, inflections, stresses et cetera that change the meaning of the words actually said. I prefer to think in pictures, much as Temple Grandin does, but it is very hard to communicate casually with icons; words, though easier to use, are inferior symbolically.

For me, art and technology are the same; indeed technë is the Greek word for art. Semiotics, the study of signs and symbols, is also so thoroughly intertwined with art as to be a single organism. What is art, then, should it lack meaning to the viewer, whether it be pleasure or disgust? Art, to me, is meaningful and powerful, and not to be taken lightly. Just as words have meaning, symbols and signs have even more.

Knowledge is power. Use it, but use it wisely.

The Orion's Arm Universe

One of the main reasons I made this blog is to critique Transhumanism, a philosophy that says that, through our own efforts, we will create a technological civilization that will conquer the stars.  There is even a collaborative game, Orion's Arm, that takes such a philosophy to its limit.

I'm not so optimistic that we'll ever get off the third rock from the sun in time, not because I am a religious fundamentalist or anything of the sort, but because space is unimaginably vast and inhospitable.  Whether one says that we were created directly by God six thousand years ago or evolved merely by natural selection over billions of years, Earth is our home.  We can't pack up and leave so easily, certainly not without having found a suitable extrasolar environment wherein we can live.  Outer space can be compared to ocean navigation, and many science fiction shows make this comparison; however, I compare space travel to an earthworm's walking on the bottom of the ocean without having any sense of direction, and expecting to find an ideal habitat in the Marianas Trench.  Like it or not, we won't be able to sail the stars and be back to Earth by tea-time.

Anyway, the Orion's Arm scenario, itself unimaginably broad in scope, has its merits.  Unlike most science fiction, it claims to be bound by actual science, rather than speculation.  It talks about how long it would take for a civilization to conquer even as small a portion of the Galaxy as the Orion Arm using the best plausible technology imaginable (relativistic ships with antimatter drives.)  It also talks about genetic engineering, which I must admit is a very real possibility, if a threat, to humanity.  After all, if technology is banned in one place it will, unfortunately, be flourishing in others, even if in secret.  I have pretty much resigned myself to the thought that some brilliant biologist will engineer a chimera somewhere in the world within this decade, if it hasn't been done already.

But the most frightening aspect of the Transhumanism found in Orion's Arm is that humanity is something from which we need to escape and can overcome, not something to be celebrated and embraced.  For instance, the need to create smarter people (what about those "left behind?" that is, most of us) the need to escape this polluted Earth and start anew on Tau Ceti or whereever.  Granted, I for one would like to be smarter; I would like to own a piece of real estate on one of the moons of the gas giant planet found within the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri B.  But not if it means giving up my essential humanity, my soul.  And this is another issue I have with Transhumanists, that the soul can be treated like software and the body hardware.  Even if genetic engineers "hack" the genome, the soul will still be there, ineffable, waiting, whole...

Nevertheless, traditional ethicists, theologians and others concerned for more, how shall I say it, intangible things have their work cut out for them with regard to Orion's Arm.  I recommend it, but only as a game, and perhaps a warning to those who cannot imagine the Human to be grander still than even Galactic empires.

Hence, I am happy to remain merely a Sapient.

Body Worlds

I went to a fascinating exibit this Wednesday at the Leonardo in Salt Lake City: Body Worlds. I must say that it is not for the prudish or squeamish. The dozen some bodies (I cannot call them plastinations) on display are displayed in a grotesque yet strangely human way, some in various athletic poses, with some split like sides of beef. That, and the various organs shown made the point that the human body is a marvelous thing indeed, but something not to be overly romanticized. It is one thing to say that it took God to create such a complicated form, and not merely natural selection, yet there were displays of congenital defects as well; did the same God make these? It troubles me.

I would like to give thanks to my parents for all the help that they have given me and for putting up with all of the trouble that I have caused.