Blue Tyson on August 29th, 2010

Gary Foshee, a collector and designer of puzzles from Issaquah near Seattle walked to the lectern to present his talk. It consisted of the following three sentences: “I have two children. One is a boy born on a Tuesday. What is the probability I have two boys?”
The event was the Gathering for Gardner earlier this [...]

Continue reading about Some Thoughts on Tuesday’s Child – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on August 6th, 2010

“It would be absurd to over-generalise from my experience, but equally absurd to treat it as singular. Perhaps neurologists will eventually pin down a particular mechanism associated with the kind of religious practice I’ve described, but to me it seems equally likely that the mechanisms will be diverse. What I do suspect I once shared [...]

Continue reading about Born Again Briefly – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 20th, 2010

An interview with David Conyers, from Albedo One Magazine
“Do transhuman characters with god-like powers alienate readers? Are they too far removed from human emotions and frailties that we experience in modern society?
The frailty of our bodies is an enormously important part of our current reality — and I very much doubt that anyone will ever [...]

Continue reading about Virtual Worlds and Imagined Futures – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 18th, 2010

“Gummelt draws Petra Gummelt’s quasiperiodic tiling of the plane with overlapping decagons.
Decagonal tile
This tiling is related to the rhombic Penrose tiling, with a decagon associated with each “fat” rhomb, and the side-matching rules replaced by the requirement that wherever two decagons overlap, the coloured darts they contain are superimposed. Each decagon contains four darts, two [...]

Continue reading about Gummelt Applet – Greg Egan

“In Zendegi, Greg Egan has created a beautiful, brilliant, near-future world that expertly explores the consequences of mind-mapping technology in the politically volatile world of Iran.”
3.5 out of 5
http://io9.com/5564075/with-zendegi-greg-egan-plunges-us-into-the-techno+future-of-iran

Continue reading about With “Zendegi,” Greg Egan plunges us into the techno-future of Iran – Chris Braak

Blue Tyson on June 16th, 2010

Anti-ship defenses.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Railguns : Scales – Alastair Reynolds

Blue Tyson on June 16th, 2010

Nico’s new home.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Chokepoint : Scales – Alastair Reynolds

Blue Tyson on June 16th, 2010

By Russell Blackford :-
“7. Blackford: Is it similar when you deal with advanced scientific and mathematical concepts—concepts that might “lose” even readers with reasonable levels of scientific literacy—or do you see that as a different kind of problem? Again, I’m interested in how it feels from the inside to an author writing this kind of [...]

Continue reading about Aurealis interview 2009 – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 16th, 2010

” Keep using crappy software, or the AI overlord will eat your children.”
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/INTERVIEWS/Interviews.html

Continue reading about Quote – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 15th, 2010

“Schwarz performs two successive Schwarz-Christoffel transformations of the complex plane: f(z)=1+(z–z0)/(1–z0*z), which maps z0 to 1 and the unit disk centred on 0 to the unit disk centred on 1, and g(z)=(z+1)/(z–1), which maps 1 to infinity and the unit disk centred on 0 to half the complex plane; z0 is either a random point, [...]

Continue reading about Schwarz Applet – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 15th, 2010

“Laplace displays solutions of Laplace’s equation in three dimensions, sampled on the surface of a sphere. The intensity of each colour cycles between two randomly oriented spherical harmonics — functions whose angular dependence has a simple pattern of regularly spaced peaks and troughs.”
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/APPLETS/04/04.html

Continue reading about Laplace Applet – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 15th, 2010

“Cantor is a 2-dimensional Cantor set, a square divided into nine parts with the middle rectangle removed, and the same process applied to the other eight rectangles, ad infinitum. The black region is the Cantor set; the gaps are decorated. A version where all the rectangles are identical squares can be described mathematically as [...]

Continue reading about Cantor Applet – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Novelette
Number of words : 16300
Percent of complex words : 11.9
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 22.9
READABILITY INDICES
Fog [...]

Continue reading about Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Novelette
Number of words : 16300
Percent of complex words : 11.9
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 22.9
READABILITY INDICES
Fog [...]

Continue reading about Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Russian spacecraft.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Sputnik : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

“J.D. longed to take the meerkat out of the sample case. She still had never touched its graceful curves with her bare hands, only through gloves. But it would be a mistake to open the box, a mistake to indulge herself and pass the sculpture around. It was too precious.
“The protocol calls for quarantine [...]

Continue reading about Transition 06 – Vonda N. McIntyre

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Prize awarded to young mathematicians.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Fields Medal : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

A type definition of 4096 bits.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Dark Integers : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Very, very small. Physics measurement.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Planck scale : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Bomb movie.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Dr Strangelove : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Comic strip detective.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Dick Tracy : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

American tv show.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about The West Wing : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Sydney suburb.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Penrith : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Outside Sydney.
3.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Blue Mountains : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Sea between Australia and New Zealand.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Tasman : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Suburb of Sydney.
3.5 out of 5

Continue reading about West Ryde : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Where Alison lives.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Zurich : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Major city in China.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Shanghai : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Australian city.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Sydney : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Radio station, focused on new music for the young.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about JJJ : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

In Wellington.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Victoria University : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Company that wants to exploit Bruno and Alison’s discovery.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Industrial Algebra : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Mongol warlord.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Genghis Khan : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

An actress.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Hedy Lamarr : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

An actor.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Brando : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

English billionaire.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Richard Branson : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Campbell’s wife, an organic chemist. Also a lecturer at Victoria University.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Bridget : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Quantum mathematician.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Gerard Hooft : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Political theorist.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Machiavelli : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Bruno’s girlfriend.
3.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Kate : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

A number theory researcher working at Victoria University.
3.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Tim Campbell : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Alison’s daughter.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Laura : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Alison’s mentor.
4.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Yuen : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Bruno’s friend and co-watcher.
4.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Alison Tierney : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Bruno’s counterpart on the far side.
3.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Sam : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Mathematical defect mapper and watcher.
5 out of 5

Continue reading about Bruno Costanzo : Dark Integers – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Number of words : 12600
Percent of complex words : 13.1
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 15.3
READABILITY INDICES
Fog [...]

Continue reading about Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Small, shiny ball-shaped ocean creature.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Sea-urchin : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Major character in 1984.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Winston Smith : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Science fiction novel by George Orwell.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about 1984 : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Early human ancestor.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Australopithecus : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

A Chinese race that Bruno looks nothing like.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Han : Luminous – Greg Egan

In Minhang. Houses Luminous and Yuen works there.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about People’s Institute for Advanced Optical Engineering : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Large corporation.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about McDonnell-Douglas : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Large corporation.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Exxon : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Where Alison studied ring theory.
3.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Fu-tan University : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

International Asian broadcaster.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Star TV : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Aggressive UK IT company that wants their secrets.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Industrial Algebra : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Universe creation event.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Big Bang : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Follower of Plato’s ideas.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Platonist : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

No three positive integers a , b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Fermat’s Last Theorem : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Chinese dialect.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Mandarin : Luminous – Greg Egan

Good for stopping bleeding.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Surgical grade tissue repair cream : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Chinese supercomputer made of light.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Luminous : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Implanted carrying technology that breaks if disconnected from the host’s biology.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Necrotrap : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Swiss city.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Zurich : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Finnish city.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Helsinki : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Market in Shanghai.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Yuyuan Bazaar : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Vietnamese city.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Hanoi : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

In Shanghai.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Hotel Fleapit : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Large Chinese city.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Shanghai : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

A famous mathematician.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Cantor : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Alison’s supervisor for her Ph.D. on advanced applications of ring theory.
4.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Yuen Ting-fu : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Chilean dictator.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Pinochet : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Chinese leader.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Mao : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Artist.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Andy Warhol : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

A writer.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Lu Xun : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Princeton researcher.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Andrew Wiles : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Friends of theirs.
3 out of 5

Continue reading about Julia and Ramesh : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Bruno’s ex-lover and co-operator. Has idea that mathematics might be wonkier than we think.
4.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Alison : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 13th, 2010

Alison’s ex-lover and co-operator. Mapper of mathematical defects.
5 out of 5

Continue reading about Bruno : Luminous – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“Escher is inspired by the conflicting orientation cues that are used throughout the artwork of M.C. Escher. The technique of projecting selected faces from hypercubes is adapted from deBruijn’s method for quasiperiodic tilings, which is illustrated in the deBruijn applet.”
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/APPLETS/02/02.html

Continue reading about Escher Applet – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“SO(3) is a schematic of the group of rotations in three dimensions. Any rotation can be specified by a vector pointing along the axis of rotation, with a length equal to the amount of rotation; using this correspondence, each cube here has been rotated by its own position vector, relative to the central cube. The [...]

Continue reading about SO (3) – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“The effect of parallel-transporting vectors along a path, viewed as a linear map between the tangent spaces at the beginning and end of the path, is known as the holonomy for that path, and will always take the form of some rotation, R. The family of geometries for which the applet evaluates each spin network [...]

Continue reading about Spin Networks Technical Notes – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“This essay contains spoilers for my novel Quarantine. If you haven’t read it, and have any intention of doing so, you will probably enjoy it more if you read it before you read this essay.
Quantum mechanics was born early in the twentieth century as a way of dealing with some puzzling aspects of the behaviour [...]

Continue reading about Quantum Mechanics and Quarantine – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“The energy eigenfunctions of Schrödinger’s equation for a two-dimensional square-well potential with infinitely high walls are:
φn,p(x,y,t) = (2/√LM) sin(nπx/L) sin(pπy/M) exp(–2πiEn,pt/h) (1)
where L and M are the dimensions of the well in the x- and y-directions (x and y being zero at one of the corners of the well), n and p are [...]

Continue reading about Quantum Soccer – Technical Notes

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“The surface of a hypersphere in 5 dimensions can be described by the equation:
x2 + y2 + z2 + u2 + w2 = R2 (1)
where x,y,z,u,w are the 5 spatial coordinates, and the origin of the coordinate system lies at the centre of the hypersphere.
Suppose this hypersphere is rotating as a rigid body. In general [...]

Continue reading about Partition of Unity Detailed – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“The standard way to embed a torus in 3 dimensions is:
(x, y, z) = ((a – b cos B) cos A, (a – b cos B) sin A, b sin B) (1)
where a and b are the major and minor radii of the torus, and A and B are angles that vary from 0 to [...]

Continue reading about Truth Mining Detailed – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“The relationship between the orbital period, T, and the separation between the neutron stars, a, is given by Kepler’s Law: the period squared is proportional to the separation cubed.
T2 = (4π2/GM) a3
where M = m1+m2 is the combined mass of the two stars, and G is the universal gravitational constant.
The total power being [...]

Continue reading about Lizard Heart Details – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“Consider a space station moving in a circular orbit around some massive body (a planet, a star, or perhaps a black hole), “tidally locked” so that it always keeps the same face towards whatever it’s orbiting. At the centre of the station objects will be weightless, but away from the centre how will they move? [...]

Continue reading about Orbits and Tidal Accelerations Detailed – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“In Chapter 20 of Incandescence, the Splinterites derive a spacetime geometry that is symmetrical under rotations around a single axis. This is a much harder feat than the case of a geometry that has spherical symmetry. In our own history, the spherically symmetrical case was solved by Schwarzschild in 1915, but the Kerr spacetime, with [...]

Continue reading about Deriving Part of the Kerr Geometry – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“In Chapter 12 of Incandescence, the Splinterites succeed in deriving a possible geometry for the spacetime they inhabit. They come up with the simplest possible geometry that conforms to Zak’s principle (that the sum of the three perpendicular “weights”, or tidal accelerations, is zero, after the effects of spin have been removed) while explaining the [...]

Continue reading about Deriving Newtonian Spacetime Geometry – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

” * Quantum and Classical Behaviour
* Pure States
* Superpositions
* Mixtures and Density Matrices
* Subsystems
* How Entanglement Hides Quantum Interference”
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Decoherence/DecoherenceNotes.html

Continue reading about Decoherence Technical Notes – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

” * Preliminaries
* (A) Blueshift outside the hole, for a stationary observer
* (B) Red- and blueshifts inside the hole, for a stationary observer
* (C) Red- and blueshifts for a free-falling observer
* (D) Apparent position and brightness [...]

Continue reading about Cordelia’s Tour Technical Notes – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“This applet models a Newtonian rotating elastic hoop as a polygon with point masses at the vertices, and edges consisting of elastic material; the edges are assumed to have negligible mass, always to be straight line segments, and to obey Hooke’s law exactly. (Note that only one in every 10 vertices is marked, rather than [...]

Continue reading about Newtonian Hoop Applet – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“In the history of special relativity, numerous thought experiments have involved rotating rings, disks and hoops. One striking feature of a uniformly rotating body in special relativity is that a family of observers who are tied to the body — and hence in a colloquial sense might seem to be “at rest” relative to each [...]

Continue reading about Rotating Elastic Rings, Disks and Hoops – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 11th, 2010

“In thought experiments in special relativity, when a rocket engine pushes on the rear of a spacecraft, or a tether is dragged behind an accelerating craft, assuming that these extended objects respond to the forces on them instantly and without deformation can lead to confusion and apparent paradoxes. The idealisation of a rigid body, which [...]

Continue reading about Relativistic Elasticity – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 9th, 2010

Short Story
Number of words : 4400
Percent of complex words : 10.4
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 19.3
READABILITY INDICES
Fog [...]

Continue reading about The Cutie – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 9th, 2010

A child substitute made by genetic modification of the donor’s DNS. Stupider than puppies.
4 out of 5

Continue reading about Cutie : The Cutie – Greg Egan

Blue Tyson on June 9th, 2010

Part of the system used for making and monitoring Cuties.
3.5 out of 5

Continue reading about Black Box : The Cutie – Greg Egan