The Hyperreal Dictionary of Mathematics is a step in a much broader Simulationist Programme, which includes, in the real world, things like science, mathematics, the economy, GNU, and even things like the Internet and (in a sense) your mind. For the mind is but a reflection of things around it – an involuntary simulation – and humans have, over time, invented various strategies for communicating between these simulations, and for making them “happy”. Thus, science existis that we might find food & shelter amid the wilderness; mathematics exists that we may count correct change & send space probes to scope out distant planets for possible colonization; the economy exists that bananas grown in Costa Rica can be sold in Minnesota for 99 cents/lb.; GNU exists so that everyone in the world can have access to free or at least cheap software that anyone can make improvements to without starting from scratch; the Internet exists that we may talk about ourselves & our friends on !LiveJournal, buy books with one click on Amazon, keep tabs on the political process in Washington such as it is through CNN and the congress’s own website; and your mind itself exists – because it has to. Echoes & images, memories, insights, intuitions, – these all evolved at some point in history because there was no other option, given the state of the world at that time.
Now we begin to see the necessity of a new kind of mind: a global mind. A mind that knows everything anyone knows, or can find it out in a hurry. This mind has been aroud in nascent form for as long as simulationism has. Within our lifetimes, it will come to take on a life of its own.
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Pie in the sky promises come from all over. Every group seems to promise rewards without effort, pleasure without investment. And the discerning minds of every generation recognize these empty promises for what they are.
I don’t have pie in the sky to offer you: maybe you’ll get it & maybe you won’t, and if you get it, maybe you’ll realize “I don’t even like pie… although I think I used to. That’s odd.” This is none of my business.
My business is to offer you a job: hard work, for little or no pay. My business is to fill you to the brim with community spirit; to ask you to lay it on the line… &c. … OK, you get the point.
If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to. Maybe you’ll get to freeride on the efforts of others. But you’ll be missing out on a lot of excitement, and you’ll never know what else you might miss out on.
“But what is it you’re asking me to do!?” you ask.
I’m trying to motivate you to help bring about a better future. Not just for yourself, because honestly, I couldn’t care less: but for everyone.
How you do that is up to you, of course. I have my own ideas about what I want to do to help bring about a better future. If they strike your fancy, you might help with them.
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The world around us has always been changing. These days, we notice it changing in more and more fundamental ways. People are changing too. This is not simply a matter of sociological trends. People, as a species, are entering a new era, a new phase of existence. If you hadn’t noticed, then maybe an example would help. Your fine, squishy, body resembles that of a rhinoceros, in the sense that it bears the mark of a bygone age, and is hardly suited to the exigencies of Today. You may manage to hang onto this body for the rest of your life, as will numerous humans in the wilder regions of this world. But I wouldn’t count on it. If you or your friends have childre,n I think the likelihood of them hanging onto their fine squishy bodies will be next to nothing.
(But I’m not a doctor. I’m a mathematician and computer scientist and the reluctant author of this Manifesto. Maybe I should say aspirant mathematician, because my abilities haven’t really been put to the test.)
Your body probably won’t be the first to go; more likely, it will be your mind. If you happen to be one of the lucky ones I’m talking about, this shouldn’t bother you much.
Because, you’ll be getting a new mind, much shinier than the old one, and much smarter. It’s true, you might miss your old mind some (like you miss your childhood), but you’ll find yourself living in a new & more prosperous happier world…
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Social movements aren’t the work of individuals. Well, they are, but many individuals, that’s the point. While you might not have any particular interest in mathematics… maybe that isn’t important. Because the Hyperreal Dictionary of Mathematics isn’t just for mathy types. It isn’t just for computer users, either. A pack of 3X5 index cards & a pen & a bit of time and thought, and you can build yourself a little hyperreal dictionary on any topic you might find interesting. By which I mean, a dictionary covering some topic completely, more or less – as completely as can be given the circumstances – that you can add to or change around at will. I use mine to keep track of my thoughts: if something seems conceptually important, I make a card about it. Then I can use this collection of cards like a personalized I Ching. And I can play games with my friends who have decks of cards like these, where we try to connect the concepts that each of us finds to be important with the concepts that the other(s) find to be important.
Of course, if you put these things on the computer & get a suitable system for keeping track of comments & connections set up, you could play these sorts of games with anyone in the world.
The Hyperreal Dictionary of Mathematics is my name for the game you play when the concepts come from mathematics, and the computer is taught how to play this game.
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Why is math the next logical thing to make computers proficient at? They are alreayd good at communication – sending a message from one corner of the world to another – and they are good at following directions (very good at that); they are good at Chess, and they are good at sums – in fact, they are very good at all sorts of mathematical problems, as long as someone tells them what to do, or how to figure out what to do. But math – real math – is both about following directions, and about creatively figuring out solutions to new problems based on what you already know.
We might teach a computer how to do sums, thes; indeed, it already knows that; and we could probably teach it simple algebra problems without too much trouble, solving equations, that kind of thing. We might have considerably more trouble teaching it about geometry – because it can’t see – but I suppose they must teach geometry to blind children, so maybe we could teach it something like that. And we could teach it a lot of definitions, and some basic strategies for doing proofs. And then we can see what it will do. Probably it will fall flat on its face; but then, so did the first Chess computers. After a few decades they were much better at Chess.
You have to walk before you can run.
Right now, we’re just ramping up to the point where we can usefully teach the computer anything new about math whatsoever.
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It seems like in art and science – in life – we are always starting over again. You never step in the same river twice (unless it is Paul Bunyan’s Round River) – but still, it seems we’re always encountering known territory anew.
Are we cursed to live the same day over and over again, like in “Groundhog’s Day”? Or is it curse enough to have to live day after day, always slightly different, always somehow the same.
In ancient Greek mythology, there was a land called Hyperborea. There, the sun never set, and a hale & fair race (we can only assume, Nordic) lived long & prospered.
To us, of course, a sun that never set would be something of a curse, too. We need our rest.
Still.
In some Zen monastaries, once a year they do something called 7-days-as-1-day, where they don’t sleep for 7 days. They say, when you are tired, your enemy is also tired. To not go that last day could be a real shame; when the potential promize is enlightenment.
Light again.
On the 7th day, do you know how many days came before?
Probably we will always be starting over as individuals. But as something besides individuals, we can grow. Meaning and culture can build.
Perhaps the life of culture – especially now, in the era of world culture – is living one continual day. Perhaps we are in Hyperborea after all, and never realize it.