[math-fun] next breakthrough?
i know this is vague, but my wife was reading about the history of i and wondered what the next great fundamental conceptual breakthrough might be. it took something like 1500 years for complex numbers to get understood and now they're used everywhere. it's now been about 250 years and she was wondering what might be the next breakthrough be that could be as consequential as complex numbers are. /bernie\ -- Bernie Cosell bernie@fantasyfarm. com -- Too many people, too few sheep --
Perhaps it will be the unification of gravity and quantum theory. Another idea to ponder: are the laws of physics finitely describable? While this is true for our knowledge of these laws, I'm thinking more of how they might be written in "God's Book". -- Gene On Thursday, March 1, 2018, 3:47:36 PM PST, Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote: i know this is vague, but my wife was reading about the history of i and wondered what the next great fundamental conceptual breakthrough might be. it took something like 1500 years for complex numbers to get understood and now they're used everywhere. it's now been about 250 years and she was wondering what might be the next breakthrough be that could be as consequential as complex numbers are. /bernie\ -- Bernie Cosell bernie@fantasyfarm. com -- Too many people, too few sheep -- _______________________________________________
I'm reminded of John Wheeler's "It from Bit" essay. https://jawarchive.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/informationquantumphysics.pdf On Thu, Mar 1, 2018 at 4:12 PM, Eugene Salamin via math-fun < math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
Perhaps it will be the unification of gravity and quantum theory.
Another idea to ponder: are the laws of physics finitely describable? While this is true for our knowledge of these laws, I'm thinking more of how they might be written in "God's Book".
-- Gene
On Thursday, March 1, 2018, 3:47:36 PM PST, Bernie Cosell < bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
i know this is vague, but my wife was reading about the history of i and wondered what the next great fundamental conceptual breakthrough might be. it took something like 1500 years for complex numbers to get understood and now they're used everywhere. it's now been about 250 years and she was wondering what might be the next breakthrough be that could be as consequential as complex numbers are.
/bernie\ -- Bernie Cosell bernie@fantasyfarm. com -- Too many people, too few sheep -- _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Thane Plambeck tplambeck@gmail.com http://counterwave.com/
My gut instinct says Homotopy Type Theory. Best wishes, Adam P. Goucher [P.S. Boolean algebra was both more recent and more consequential than complex numbers -- the idea that one can identify {false, true} with F_2 and perform algebra upon it.]
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2018 at 11:47 PM From: "Bernie Cosell" <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> To: math-fun@mailman.xmission.com Subject: [math-fun] next breakthrough?
i know this is vague, but my wife was reading about the history of i and wondered what the next great fundamental conceptual breakthrough might be. it took something like 1500 years for complex numbers to get understood and now they're used everywhere. it's now been about 250 years and she was wondering what might be the next breakthrough be that could be as consequential as complex numbers are.
/bernie\ -- Bernie Cosell bernie@fantasyfarm. com -- Too many people, too few sheep -- _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
participants (4)
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Adam P. Goucher -
Bernie Cosell -
Eugene Salamin -
Thane Plambeck