My curiosity and intellectual ambitions outpace my time and ability. I love thinking about patterns. Particularly patterns in math and computing.
I created this series of videos when I was studying anatomy to improve my figurative work.
For this series of video tutorials I translated Daniel Shiffman’s ‘Nature of Code’ into Python using Rhino3d and Grasshopper.
This video is an overview of a program I created to help me think in Japanese.
Geometry
I am curious about the geometrical and mathematical model of Einstein’s Relativity. The Beltrami Klein Model feels the most natural to me at this point. I would love to do a pass on Apollonius, seeing how his intuitions and insights about hyperbola play into the paradigm of hyperbolic space. In general I am curious about the different forms of non-euclidean geometry.
Computing
How can we think clearly about computing at the most fundamental level?
-Lambda Calculus of Alonzo Church
-LISP 1.5 Programmers’ Manual
Computer Languages
My curiosity in languages led me to create a language I’m currently calling Patch. The language’s name Patch is short for Pattern Matching. Its core is a pattern matching evaluator. I am trying to get the simplicity of the lisp evaluator into a pattern matching paradigm. I would like to get a full description of the language into a short paper, say 20 pages. This is perfectly doable. And just requires a bit of time.
Short list of excellent books that have informed my thinking:
Augmenting Human Intellect – Engelbart
The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance – Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich, Hoffman
The Universal History of Numbers – Ifrah
The Universal History of Computing – Ifram
Sketching User Experiments – Bill Buxton
Visualization Analysis & Design – Tamara Munzner
Visual Explanations – Tufte
Envisioning Information – Tufte
Information Visualization – Colin Ware
The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy – James Evans
The Elements – Euclid
The Conics – Apollonius
A Secular Age – Charles Taylor
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – Sussman & Abelson
Essentials of Programming Languages – Friedman, Wand & Haynes
Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History – Roberts & Roberts
Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns – Beck
The C Programming Language – Kernighan & Ritchie
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition – Francis Yates
The Art of Memory – Francis Yates
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment – Francis Yates
De Umbris Idearum – Giordano Bruno
How to Read and Do Proofs – Daniel Solow
Introduction to the Theory of Computation – Sipser
Programming With Constraints: An Introduction – Marriott & Stuckey
The Elements of Computing Systems – Nisan & Schocken
Code – Charles Petzold
The Annotated Turing – Charles Petzold
Lisp 1.5 Programmers’ Manual – McCarthy
Long Term Goals:
* Solid understanding of computing at its most fundamental level.
* To be able to create user interfaces quickly and fluently (read Augmenting Human Intellect by Englebart)
* Understand how to control the GPU.
* Understand how to build an OS.
* An understanding of the math behind the theory of relativity
* Newton’s Principia