Interview with John Conway

[ddyer]

An hour long podcast - interviewing John Conway about Martin Gardner, life, the universe
and everything. http://mathfactor.uark.edu/2010/06/ha-c ... n-gardner/

[triller]

Fascinating!
Tanx for the link.

triller

[Extrementhusiast]

I also happened to have an interview with Mr. Conway himself, while I was (and currently still am) in Minnesota.

[wylx]

Wow. Truly amazing.

Also, interesting wording: Martin Gardner, life, the universe, and everything

Makes Martin Garner look very important =P

[HartmutHolzwart]

Btw, I didn't see any comment neither from JHC himself nor from Bill Gosper on Gemini. They're aware of this progress?

Cheers,
Hartmut

[apg]

I also happened to have an interview with Mr. Conway himself, while I was (and currently still am) in Minnesota.

About what? And how did you earn that privilege?

[Paul Tooke]

I also happened to have an interview with Mr. Conway himself, while I was (and currently still am) in Minnesota.

Did you get the job?

Paul

[Extrementhusiast]

Paul: What job?

calcyman: This was for some math convention for some of the brightest young(-ish) minds in the world. Conway happened to be giving lectures, and you know what happened next.

[apg]

... and you know what happened next.

You discussed the Leech lattice, surreal numbers, sporadic groups, E8, icosians, uniform polytopes, and audioactive decay?

In fact, the Leech lattice is the first thing mentioned in Gardner's October 1970 column -- the packing of spheres in 24 dimensions where each sphere is touching 196560 others. I contemplated simulating a cellular automaton on this lattice, but we'll have to wait a while before this computational power becomes available. E8 is a less ambitious option, having only 8 dimensions.

The E8 and Leech lattices are both intimately connected to theoretical physics, especially string theory. The 10 and 26 dimensions are due to the 8 dimensions of E8 and 24 dimensions of the Leech lattice, adjoined to an extra two dimensions.

[Extrementhusiast]

No, not that. Just about regular Life...

[apg]

No, not that. Just about regular Life...

Oh, what a shame. Some of the others (especially uniform polytopes) are equally, if not more, interesting. At least in my opinion, they are.

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[Paul Tooke]

Paul: What job?

Sorry, dump quip. In the UK (I'm east-pondian), when someone says "I had an interview with X", they normally mean a job interview. I was just wondering how one goes about securing an interview with JHC and one thing led to another.

So what did you actually talk about? You mentioned Life, but what specifically? I'm not entirely sure that JHC is, has been, following recent developments that much. Was it the early stuff?

Paul.

[Extrementhusiast]

Yes, it was more the early stuff. I didn't know that "interview" typically meant "job interview", because I'm just fourteen.