john conway -- duuuude

if think you're unaware of who john conway is, you probably are still familiar with something or another about him... he's the guy who invented the game of life... you know with dots on a computer screen that disappear and reappear depending on how many neighboring dots were there on the screen before... at least you should know. =P check out this link: http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html

so anyhow, today was the NJ MAA (mathematical association of america) meeting and it was here at rutgers... one of the nice things about the NJ sectional meeting (i've gone to Indiana section meetings the past 4 years as an undergrad) is that princeton university is involved (princeton is like *the* capital of mathematics in the US... if you get a job there or by some miracle get into there for grad school you're definitely one of the top people in the field), so some of the speakers who are there every year are phenominally famous people.

anyhow, john conway was talking this afternoon and eric pointed it out and suggested we go, so i gladly did. conway's famous for tons more than even the game of life, he's just an amazing guy in general.

so yeah, he's talking giving his lecture and introducing what he calls lexicodes and writes up "the great lexicode theorem" commenting "well, i've never called it 'great' before... that's interesting"... started to show some examples of how his theorem works and the second example just plain doesn't work! people are looking at him funny, and he comments "wow, this statement couldn't be any more false! i guess it should be the 'great lexicode non-theorem'... well that's interesting... usually when i write something on the board it just turns out to be right... you don't get to be john conway by writing non-theorems!" and everyone's looking around going "dude, i sure hope this is part of the plan"... of course it was... the theorem evolved from a theorem to a non-theorem to a question to an axiom to a definition to a mystery over the course of the hour.

much later, after spending most of his lecture describing this crazy algebra system generated by his lexicodes he commented "and the day i finally proved 4 times 4 is 6... oh wow! it was one of those moments you just have to lie down (lies down on his back on the floor in front of a packed lecture hall and starts waving his arms and legs wildly in the air) and wave as many apendages as you can in excitement!"

dude, what a talk. first of all conway's incredibly famous and i was in the 4th row, second of all he's an incredibly funny and engaging speaker, and 3rd it was an incredibly intriguing subject he was talking on... i enjoyed it a lot.

dude, so now i've done 1/6 on graph theory -- this is majorly exciting!

it's also eric's birthday (he's just turning 22 now... sooo young! =P)... the people who live on campus sang to him earlier... he has a recording session with his university band from 7 til 11 tonight and the agreement was if it clear up enough i'm supposed to show up and pick him up from the recording with the telescope in tow to go star looking atting... in the event that the clouds don't cooperate we're going on a midnight search for the mythological ferry in my "NJ curiousities" book again... either way an adventure. dude.

in the meantime, dinner, and hopefully another graph theory problem solved... *that* would be ideal =P

later dudes.