This mathematician died last week. He won the Fields Medal in 2002 for proving the Milnor conjecture in a branch of algebra known as algebraic K-theory. He continued to work on this subject until he helped prove the more general Bloch-Kato conjecture in 2010. Proving these results — which are too technical to easily describe to nonmathematicians! — required him to develop a dream of Grothendieck: the theory of motives. Very roughly, this is a way of taking the space of solutions of a collection of polynomial equations and chopping it apart into building blocks. But the process of 'chopping up', and also these building blocks, called 'motives', are very abstract — nothing simple or obvious.
Reads
👓 The Next Platform | Pierre Levy
One percent of the human population was connected to the Internet at the end of the 20th century. In 2017, more than 50% is. Most of the users interact in social media, search information, buy products and services online. But despite the ongoing success of digital communication, there is a growing dissatisfaction about the big tech companies (the “Silicon Valley”) who dominate the new communication environment. The big techs are the most valued companies in the world and the massive amount of data that they possess is considered the most precious good of our time. The Silicon Valley owns the big computers: the network of physical centers where our personal and business data are stored and processed. Their income comes from their economic exploitation of our data for marketing purpose and from their sales of hardware, software or services. But they also derive considerable power from the knowledge of markets and public opinions that stems from their information control.
Transparency is the very basis of trust and the precondition of authentic dialogue. Data and people (including the administrators of a platform), should be traceable and audit-able. Transparency should be reciprocal, without distinction between rulers and ruled. Such transparency will ultimately be the basis of reflexive collective intelligence, allowing teams and communities of any size to observe and compare their cognitive activity.
The trouble with some of this is the post-truth political climate in which basic “facts” are under debate. What will the battle between these two groups look like and how can actual facts win out in the end? Will the future Eloi and Morlocks be the descendants of them? I would have presumed that generally logical, intelligent, and educated people would generally come to a broadly general philosophical meeting of the minds as to how to best maximize life, but this seems to obviously not be the case as the result of the poorly educated who will seemingly believe almost anything. And this problem is generally separate from the terrifically selfish people who have differing philosophical stances on how to proceed. How will these differences evolve over time?
This article is sure to be interesting philosophy among some in the IndieWeb movement, but there are some complexities in the system which are sure to muddy the waters. I suspect that many in the Big History school of thought may enjoy the underpinnings of this as well.
I’m going to follow Pierre Levy’s blog to come back and read a bit more about his interesting research programme. There’s certainly a lot to unpack here.
Annotations
Commonality means that people will not have to pay to get access to the new public sphere: all will be free and public property. Commonality means also transversality: de-silo and cross-pollination.
Openness is on the rise because it maximizes the improvement of goods and services, foster trust and support collaborative engagement.
We need a new kind of public sphere: a platform in the cloud where data and metadata would be our common good, dedicated to the recording and collaborative exploitation of our memory in the service of collective intelligence. According to the current zeitgeist, the core values orienting the construction of this new public sphere should be: openness, transparency and commonality
The practice of writing in ancient palace-temples gave birth to government as a separate entity. Alphabet and paper allowed the emergence of merchant city-states and the expansion of literate empires. The printing press, industrial economy, motorized transportation and electronic media sustained nation-states.
The digital revolution will foster new forms of government. We discuss political problems in a global public space taking advantage of the web and social media. The majority of humans live in interconnected cities and metropoles. Each urban node wants to be an accelerator of collective intelligence, a smart city.
👓 A 2017 Nobel laureate says he left science because he ran out of money and was fed up with academia | QZ
Jeffrey Hall, a retired professor at Brandeis University, shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries elucidating how our internal body clock works. He was honored along with Michael Young and his close collaborator Michael Roshbash. Hall said in an interview from his home in rural Maine that he collaborated with Roshbash because they shared...
👓 Tillerson was summoned to the White House amid presidential fury | NBC News
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was called to the White House after a furious President Trump reacted to reports of a growing rift between the two men.
👓 NRA support for restricting ‘bump stocks’ reflects impact of Las Vegas massacre | Washington Post
Less clear is whether the move signals an opening for further action on gun control.
👓 Las Vegas Is Only the Deadliest Shooting in US History Because They Don’t Count Black Lives | The Root
News reporters and anchors have repeatedly referred to the recent tragedy in Las Vegas as the “worst mass shooting in U.S. history.” Like all things that are constantly repeated, the proclamation has become fact.
👓 A Tech of Our Own | Beyond the Wrapper – Martha Burtis
Last night, we (meaning the DKC and my colleagues in the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies) hosted a premiere of a short horror film that we shot in May of 2016. We developed the script over about three weeks, shot the movie in one day, and then took over a year to get our acts together and finish editing it. In fact, the only reason it WAS finished was because of two amazing new students who split their time between tutoring in the DKC and supporting DTLT, Stef and Bethany. They started only two months ago, but they began working on the movie almost immediatley and, in collaboration with Jess Reingold, masterminded a pretty amazing event last night. We had a nice turnout in the Digital Auditorium and it was incredibly satisfying to be in a room of people enjoying The Convergence.
👓 Unverified | Hack Education
I’ve tried half a dozen times now to get my Twitter account verified. Each time, I’ve been rejected. “We reviewed the account, and unfortunately it is not eligible to be verified at this time.”
👓 Decades of Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Harvey Weinstein | New York Times
An investigation by The New York Times found allegations stretching back to 1990 about Mr. Weinstein’s treatment of women in Hollywood.
👓 Former Obama Adviser Anita Dunn Helped Harvey Weinstein Strategize Before New York Times Story | Buzzfeed
On Thursday, the New York Times published a major investigation about the Hollywood mogul, who had assembled a team of top legal and PR professionals.
👓 Frantic switchboard calls, geometry of fire, led police to killer on Mandalay Bay’s 32nd floor | Washington Post
The gunshots came from the Las Vegas tower’s golden facade. But where was the shooter? And was there only one?
👓 Origin by Dan Brown review – fun in its own galumphing way | The Guardian
In his fifth blockbuster outing, professor of symbology Robert Langdon takes on the battle between science and religion
And by the way, who doesn’t like the word galumphing?
👓 Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. Were Close to Being Charged With Felony Fraud | ProPublica
New York prosecutors were preparing a case. Then the D.A. overruled his staff after a visit from a top donor: Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz.
👓 Billionaire relents, kicks open his gate to popular Martins Beach | SF Gate
A billionaire landowner who had blocked access to a beach near Half Moon Bay opened the gate leading to the sandy shore Wednesday, two days after legal papers were filed demanding he comply with a court order. The decision by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla to finally allow the public to use the only road leading to picturesque Martins Beach was touted as a victory for surfers and sunbathers, but lawyers say it probably isn't the end of a decade-long battle over the sandy cove.
They didn’t do a very good job describing the subtleties of the situation and the law here though.
👓 Anti-abortion Rep. Tim Murphy plans to retire amid sex scandal | USA Today
The announcement comes a day after the pro-life lawmaker allegedly asked his mistress to get an abortion.
If only the people who protest so vociferously and who spend money to fight abortion would instead spend their time and money to support the adoption and care of all these unwanted children, the problem would be so drastically different. You have to care about the lives after they are born or you’re just being hypocritical, otherwise, just what are you really saving? Do they want to save and add to the suffering in the world? Should they be called pro-suffering activists instead of anti-abortion?