Continuum...!!
Algorithms have always been fascinating. Understanding an algorithm is a relatively simple task. Analysis is certainly a non-trivial task, but is not too difficult nonetheless. Tracing it back to the origins is what is much more interesting. It is like trying to find the source of an idea. It is trying to ask questions like, 'How is it that the guy who devised this algorithm get to this?' 'What was on his mind?' 'What are the things that he was looking at... what all could he have considered?' and more...
I have always felt that I should go back to my elementary math. Get back to the basics. I don't need to learn them for I already know (probably!) them. I need to experience them. I need to understand why an axiom is an axiom. What's so evident about it? And why was it as evident then as it is now?
Have been trying to explore a few ideas and algorithms. Donald Knuth is the main recourse. There are a lot of other very good books/documents, and of course there is wikipedia.
Flirting with Euclid right now. Mind you, I don't intend to find answers to any of those questions. My idea is different. Even if I experience an elementary 'sahanubhooti', I'll consider myself absolutely fortunate.
By the way, check this out -http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/hilbert/problems.html
I'm on the same journey as you. Right now I'm working on the Fine Structure Constant. If you come up with a clue as to why those formulas were used let me know and I will do the same for you!!
Posted by
Alex |
4:26 PM, October 21, 2004
Surely Alex :-). But, right now, the objective is to get as close to that experience, as I could... 'sahanubhooti' as I said (sorry...I don't have an english word for that, empathy comes close but still fails to qualify). If I get to experience that (or if u can do that), then probably comes the question of 'formalising' that 'anubhooti', expressing it and communicating it. That's relatively simpler, I guess.
Wish me luck. I wish u luck too. :-)
Posted by
Sanket |
3:57 AM, October 22, 2004
By the way, did u read my previous article? This is 'continuum..' because of that 'Incompleteness..'. :-D
Posted by
Sanket |
4:00 AM, October 22, 2004
Thanks for your comment on my blog. I agree with you. That's why we have randomness in this universe with the other side of the teeter totter being consequences as in "Bad Things Happen To Good People"!! Is 'sahanubhooti' the same as "epiphany"????
Posted by
Alex |
4:08 AM, October 23, 2004
No Alex, 'sahanubhooti' is much different. This is not necessarily anything divine. Let me try to explain. its a sanskrit word that has two parts. 'saha' and 'anubhooti'. the 'saha' prefix is the same as the 'com' prefix is compassion, compatriot, comrade, company etc... 'Anubhooti' is more difficult to explain, and I doubt if I can be precise. It is experiencing something in all its details as if it is happening (ongoing), and u r subject to the flow of that thing, it is u who react to that flow, u r responsible for the consequences of ur reactions... all in all it's u who's totally immersed in it and not someone else. When I say, 'sahanubhooti', it is not something u'd understand and comprehend just by observing, symapathising or empatising with someone else's experience. U have to get to the flow of that experience URSELF, somehow... and it's not at all easy. but it does happen with some people. i've known them.
Posted by
Sanket |
2:03 AM, October 24, 2004
By the way, sometimes I feel I am overdefining this word. Probably it is much simpler than the way I am trying to express it. But still, I would like to have it that way. ;-)
Posted by
Sanket |
2:05 AM, October 24, 2004