Well, it’s time to say goodbye. I’ve been privileged to be writing the Social Dimension blog for Wired for over three years now but it is drawing to a close. Over the course of this blog’s run, I’ve tried to highlight the deep interdisciplinary connections all around us, often using mathematical ideas to stitch together different domains, from science to popular culture. Inspired by Christian Jarrett, whose blog is also ending, I’ve been going through the blog’s archives. So I wanted to wrap up with a selection of some of my favorite things that I’ve had the pleasure to write about and share with you, my readers, grouped into a couple of emergent themes:
For one, I’ve combined the humanities with mathematics in a huge number of ways. I’ve calculated the inbreeding of superheroes and Greek gods. I’ve written about the mathematics of LEGO, Spider-Man’s taste in applied mathematics textbooks, and a Twitter account I created that creates one’s own vanity scientific eponyms. And here’s some data analysis about television shows.
I like long-term thinking a lot, especially related to long data , and have looked at information that shows whales living a long time (and their relationship to technological change) as well as historical data on Jewish expulsions. And don’t forget thinking about Asimov’s psychohistory, the long-term reading of a single publication, or that one billion seconds is between 31 and 32 years.
Of course, on more scientific topics, I explored how to evolve an equation for the constant of the universe and new ways to measure science.
And I also made a tiny algorithm that mimics snowfall.
For more, please feel free to browse the archives.
Anyway, it’s been incredible having the chance to examine such a wide-ranging approach to the world’s complexity through science and mathematics. Thank you to all of my long-time readers; it’s been a great ride.
If you are interested in keeping track of what I’m writing elsewhere online and offline, follow me on Twitter. I’m currently working on my next book, this one is about how our technology is becoming just too complicated. And please consider signing up for my newsletter.
See everyone out on the Internet.
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