Breaking Math Podcast

From our first breath of the day to brushing our teeth to washing our faces to our first sip of coffee, and even in the waters of the rivers we have built cities upon since antiquity, we find ourselves surrounded by fluids. Fluids, in this context, mean anything that can take the shape of its container. Physically, that means anything that has molecules that can move past one another, but mathematics has, as always, a slightly different view. This view is seen by some as more nuanced, others as more statistical, but by all as a challenge. This definition cannot fit into an introduction, and I’ll be picking away at it for the remainder of this episode. So what is a fluid? What can we learn from it? And how could learning from it be worth a million dollars?--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Sponsored by www.brilliant.org/breakingmath, where you can take courses in calculus, computer science, chemistry, and other STEM subjects. All online; all at your own pace; and accessible anywhere with an internet connection, including your smartphone or tablet! Start learning today! Check out: https://blankfornonblank.podiant.co/e/357f09da787bac/What you're about to hear is part two of an episode recorded by the podcasting network ___forNon___ (Blank for Non-Blank), of which Breaking Math, along with several other podcasts, is a part. To check out more ___forNon___ content, you can click on the link in this description. And of course, for more info and interactive widgets you can go to breakingmathpodcast.com, you can support us at patreon.com/breakingmathpodcast, and you can contact us directly at breakingmathpodcast@gmail.com. We hope you enjoy the second part of the first ___forNon___ group episode. You can also support ___forNon___ by donating at patreon.com/blankfornonblank.--- This episode is spo

This is the first group podcast for the podcasting network ___forNon___ (pronounced "Blank for Non-Blank"), a podcasting network which strives to present expert-level subject matter to non-experts in a way which is simultaneously engaging, interesting, and simple. The episode today delves into the problem of learning. We hope you enjoy this episode.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Jonathan and Gabriel discuss four challenging problems.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

What does it mean to be a good person? What does it mean to make a mistake? These are questions which we are not going to attempt to answer, but they are essential to the topic of study of today’s episode: consciousness. Conscious is the nebulous thing that lends a certain air of importance to experience, but as we’ve seen from 500 centuries of fascination with this topic, it is difficult to describe in languages which we’re used to. But with the advent of neuroscience and psychology, we seem to be closer than ever to revealing aspects of consciousness that we’ve never beheld. So what does it mean to feel? What are qualia? And how do we know that we ourselves are conscious?--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.  https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Jonathan and Gabriel discuss ___forNon___ (blank for non-blank); a podcasting collective they've recently joined. Check out more at blankfornonblank.com.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Go to www.brilliant.org/breakingmathpodcast to learn neural networks, everyday physics, computer science fundamentals, the joy of problem solving, and many related topics in science, technology, engineering, and math. Mathematics takes inspiration from all forms with which life interacts. Perhaps that is why, recently, mathematics has taken inspiration from that which itself perceives the world around it; the brain itself. What we’re talking about are neural networks. Neural networks have their origins around the time of automated computing, and with advances in hardware, have advanced in turn. So what is a neuron? How do multitudes of them contribute to structured thought? And what is in their future?--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.  https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Frank Salas is an statistical exception, but far from an irreplicable result. Busted on the streets of Albuquerque for selling crack cocaine at 17, an age where many of us are busy honing the skills that we've chosen to master, and promply incarcerated in one of the myriad concrete boxes that comprise the United States penal system. There, he struggled, as most would in his position, to better himself spiritually or ethically, once even participating in a prison riot. After two stints in solitary confinement, he did the unthinkable: he imagined a better world for himself. One where it was not all him versus the world. With newfound vigor, he discovered what was there all along: a passion for mathematics and the sciences. After nine years of hard time he graduated to a halfway house. From there, we attended classes at community college, honing his skills using his second lease on life. That took him on a trajectory which developed into him working on a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Miche

In a universe where everything is representable by information, what does it mean to interact with that world? When you follow a series of steps to accomplish a goal, what you're doing is taking part in a mathematical tradition as old as math itself: algorithms. From time immemorial, we've accelerated the growth of this means of transformation, and whether we're modeling neurons, recognizing faces, designing trusses on a bridge, or coloring a map, we're involving ourselves heavily in a fantastic world, where everything is connected to everything else through a massive network of mathematical factories. So does it mean to do something? What does it mean for something to end? And what is time relative to these questions?--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

The culture of mathematics is a strange topic. It is almost as important to the history of mathematics as the theorems that have come from it, yet it is rarely commented upon, and it is almost never taught in schools. One form of mathematical inquiry that has cropped up in the last two centuries has been the algorithm. While not exclusive to this time period, it has achieved a renaissance, and with the algorithm has come what has come to be known as "hacker culture". From Lord Byron to Richard Stallman, from scratches on paper to masses of wire, hacker culture has influenced the way in which we interact with conveniences that algorithms have endowed upon our society. So what are these advances? How have they been affected by the culture which birthed them? And what can we learn from this fragile yet pervasive relationship?--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Language and communication is a huge part of what it means to be a person, and a large part of this importance is the ability to direct the flow of that information; this is a practice known as cryptography. There are as many ways to encrypt data as there are ways to use them, ranging from cryptoquips solvable by children in an afternoon to four kilobit RSA taking eons of time. So why are there so many forms of encryption? What can they be used for? And what are the differences in their methodology, if not philosophy?--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Humanity, since its inception, has been nebulously defined. Every technological advancement has changed what it means to be a person, and every person has changed what it means to advance. In this same vein, there is a concept called “transhumanism”, which refers to what it will mean to be a person. This can range from everything from genetic engineering, to artificial intelligence, to technology which is beyond our current physical understanding. So what does it mean to be a person? And is transhumanism compatible with our natural understanding, if it exists, of being?--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Jonathan and Gabriel talk about the next four episodes coming down the pike, including Humanity 2.0, which debuts Tuesday, April 2nd 2017.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Jonathan and Gabriel discuss their recent news debut! You can find what they're talking about at news.unm.edu--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Computation is a nascent science, and as such, looks towards the other sciences for inspiration. Whether it be physics, as in simulated annealing, or, as now is popular, biology, as in neural networks, computer science has shown repeatedly that it can learn great things from other sciences. Genetic algorithms are one such method that is inspired, of course, by biological evolution. So what are genetic algorithms used for? What have they taught us about the natural process of evolution? And how can we use them to improve our world?--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Jonathan and Gabriel discuss everything Bangalore, evolutionary algorithmic, and more!--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Proofs are sometimes seen as an exercise in tedium, other times as a pure form of beauty, and often as both. But from time immemorial, people have been using mathematics to demonstrate new theorems, and advance the state of the art of mathematics. However, it is only relatively recently, within the last 3,000 years, that the art of mathematical proof has been considered essential to the study of mathematics. Mathematicians constantly fight over what constitutes a proof, and even what makes a proof valid, partially because proof requires delicate insight. So what is the art of mathematical proof? How has it changed? And who can do it?--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

We are proud to announce that we have recorded our very first minisode! In addition, we are introducing a new blog which can be found at www.breakingmathpodcast.com/blog.html--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Mathematics has a lot in common with language. Both have been used since the dawn of time to shape and define our world, both have sets of rules which one must master before bending, both are natural consequences of the way humans are raised, and both are as omnipresent as they are seemingly intangible. Language has thrived for almost, or as long as humans have possessed the ability to use it. But what can we say that language is? Is it a living breathing organism, a set of rigid ideals, somewhere in between, or something else altogether?--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

1948. A flash, followed by an explosion. Made possible by months of mathematical computation, the splitting of the atom was hailed as a triumph of both science and mathematics. Mathematics is seen by many as a way of quantifying experiments. But is that always the case? There are cases where it seems as though mathematics itself has made predictions about the universe and vice versa. So how are these predictions made? And what can we learn about both physics and math by examining the way in which these topics intermingle?--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support