As of May 4 2007 the scripts will autodetect your timezone settings. Nothing here has to be changed, but there are a few things

## Thursday, June 2, 2011

### Goedel, Escher, Bach - Lecture 2

It will get a little bit mathy, but that's ok.

Curran Kelleher

Lecture 2 is given by Curran Kelleher. This lecture is all about recursion and ends with a nice explanation of the Mandelbrot set.

He starts out with the traditional examples factorial:
factorial[0]:=1;
factorial[n_]:=factorial[n-1]*n; 
and fibonacci sequence:
fib[1]:=1;
fib[2]:=1;
fib[n_]:=fib[n-1]+fib[n-2];
 Kelleher's factorial program

Kelleher's hand-out ( pdf ) contains examples of Java code for drawings of the Koch curve and Sierpinski triangle. Although I fast-forwarded through this part of the lecture, it may be very interesting for non-programmers.

 Explaining the Fern algorithm

 Complex number implemented as a class in Groovy
At around 1:00 he starts with the topic of the Mandelbrot set. Starting with f(z) = z^2 + c he manages to give a nice explanation of the Mandelbrot set. The color of a point in the Mandelbrot set is based on the number of iterations it took f to 'escape' a circle. Since this is done on a pixel by pixel basis and one pixel may generate not one but several iterations this explains the long time it takes to generate a Mandelbrot set.

P.S.
GEB does not seem 'outdated' at all although it was written in the late seventies. A time when there were no mobile phones, no PCs, let alone laptops and the internet was still in its toddler phase.

## Welcome to The Bridge

Mathematics: is it the fabric of MEST?
This is my voyage
My continuous mission
To uncover hidden structures
To create new theorems and proofs
To boldly go where no man has gone before

(Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion, colloquially aka Raumpatrouille Orion was the first German science fiction television series. Its seven episodes were broadcast by ARD beginning September 17, 1966. The series has since acquired cult status in Germany. Broadcast six years before Star Trek first aired in West Germany (in 1972), it became a huge success.)