Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
scientificamerican.com
Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
1–10 of 44 posts
Re: Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
#2> you can get everybody onto the same page by talking about the complex plane in terms of the layout of Black Rock City: the Man is at zero, Center Camp (Esplanade and 6:00) is at i, the main entrance is around - 2i, the 3:00 and 9:00 plazas are at ± 1, and the Temple (a nondenominational, pan-belief, transient, and intentionally flammable structure) is at + i.
While this is accurate, after seven years of attending Burning Man this is the first time that I've heard anyone describe the city layout - even after spending a pretty significant amount of time at self-identifying geek camps like The Institute.
Re: Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
#3Wow, what a great read. Thanks for sharing!
Re: Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
#4A nice article for someone who knows nothing about Burning Man. If you've been, you will learn little that you don't already know. Burners choose to play in a difficult, often uncomfortable environment. They have a higher than average desire to be challenged - by everything from esoteric math and physics discussions to learning (as novices) moderately advanced contradancing (a radically inclusive danceform [1] that has been analyzed with matrices [2], disclaimer - my camp).
1 http://www.burningmancontradance.com/home/contraintro
2 https://ida.mtholyoke.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10166/679/4...
Re: Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
#5I met Spencer in NY. Super cool guy, does really interesting research outside of BM.
Re: Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
#6A nice article for someone who knows nothing about Burning Man. If you've been, you will learn little that you don't already know. Burners choose to play in a difficult, often uncomfortable environment. They have a higher than average desire to be challenged - by everything from esoteric math and physics discussions to learning (as novices) moderately advanced contradancing (a radically inclusive danceform [1] that h…
>They have a higher than average desire to be challenged
A lot of them also take a lot of MDMA and drink a lot of alcoholic beverages. There's something for everyone at BM.
Re: Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
#7A nice article for someone who knows nothing about Burning Man. If you've been, you will learn little that you don't already know. Burners choose to play in a difficult, often uncomfortable environment. They have a higher than average desire to be challenged - by everything from esoteric math and physics discussions to learning (as novices) moderately advanced contradancing (a radically inclusive danceform [1] that h…
That 'higher than average desire' tidbit is oh so very measurable...
Re: Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
#8A nice article for someone who knows nothing about Burning Man. If you've been, you will learn little that you don't already know. Burners choose to play in a difficult, often uncomfortable environment. They have a higher than average desire to be challenged - by everything from esoteric math and physics discussions to learning (as novices) moderately advanced contradancing (a radically inclusive danceform [1] that h…
The BM part wasn't so interesting, but the questions they were pondering were fun.
Re: Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
#91 drug + 2 drugs = 3 drugs
Re: Burning Man's Mathematical Underbelly
#10Flip the script. The landscape of most modern math really does amount to just a drunken homosexual orgy.