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Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 1:55 am
by 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/
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 3:20 pm
by triller
Fascinating!
Tanx for the link.
triller
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 5:47 pm
by Extrementhusiast
I also happened to have an interview with Mr. Conway himself, while I was (and currently still am) in Minnesota.
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 9:21 pm
by wylx
Wow. Truly amazing.
Also, interesting wording: Martin Gardner, life, the universe, and everything
Makes Martin Garner look very important =P
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 3rd, 2010, 4:45 am
by 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
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 5th, 2010, 1:44 pm
by 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?
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 5th, 2010, 7:33 pm
by Paul Tooke
Extrementhusiast wrote: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
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 5th, 2010, 8:17 pm
by 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.
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 6th, 2010, 3:00 am
by 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.
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 6th, 2010, 9:09 pm
by Extrementhusiast
No, not that. Just about regular Life...
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 7th, 2010, 5:29 am
by 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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Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 8th, 2010, 8:17 pm
by Paul Tooke
Extrementhusiast wrote: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.
Re: Interview with John Conway
Posted: July 8th, 2010, 8:51 pm
by Extrementhusiast
Yes, it was more the early stuff. I didn't know that "interview" typically meant "job interview", because I'm just fourteen.