The progress of science could be visualized on a circle.

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And it would make an awesome poster 🙂

The vast area in the center of the circle would be solid, representing “common knowledge”. The area outside would be filled with variable-length linear spokes projecting outwards from the surface of the circle, representing current work in various scientific fields. A breadth-first approach to knowledge would then be represented by traversing the circle, while a depth-first approach would be represented by moving in the direction orthogonal to the circle’s tangent line.

Short-term conditions influence long term decisions

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I call it the Grocer’s Hypothesis, because it’s probably something supermarkets have intuitively known. Customers who are hungry when they go shopping probably tend to buy more food than their satiated counterparts. This can be generalized; short-term conditions influence long-term decisions.

(Update: This has now been validated by a study at the University of Pennsylvania. Perhaps it should now be called the Grocer’s Theory :)).

Around what does society swing?

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This isn’t all that great a poem, but the idea it expresses is something I’ve been struggling with for a while.

Around what does society swing?
What is the pivot, the crux?
What great idea, what a thing,
sparks and ignites such a flux?

Arbitrary though it may seem,
underneath it does have a cause,
a root buried deep in some meme,
a weight against all of the flaws.

Chaotic it is, and profound,
enigmatic puzzles abound,
it won’t ever seek to perfect,
so all it can do is direct.

Lorentzian clustering

Gravitational clustering in machine learning, a previous idea of mine, has been done before, but it seems that you can also cluster points based on the Lorentz transform spacetime undergoes in general relativity. I’m wondering whether a data clustering algorithm based on the stress-energy tensor (simulated at relativistic speeds, of course) would be feasible. My dissertation is on using tensors in data mining, so it could be a useful example.

Teaching my gifted cousin

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My cousin is showing signs of a gift similar to my own in both scope and magnitude… except that this time, I’m here to train him. It will be interesting to see what happens. Will he grow up stronger for the help, I wonder, or has poor training become such an inextricable aspect of my own character that it can no longer be parsed out from what I’ve accomplished? Will someone who is given more be motivated to do less by sheer necessity?

I hope he’ll be more well-adjusted, at least. Aid of any form should help prevent an adversarial view of the world from forming, but perhaps he’ll end up out-of-step as well when he sees how much apathy and incompetence contrast his own vision and ability, regardless of having someone to fall back on.

If he continues as he is progressing now, he will certainly accomplish great things.