Issues

Volume 7, Issue 3

current issue

September 29, 2022

Critical Essays

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Reflections on an Essay by Wigner

Sergiu Klainerman

[short_description] In a new essay, Sergiu Klainerman retraces the development of modern mathematics, unexpected consequences in physics, and the perennial question of whether mathematics is itself a science.

Review Essays

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Political Science

The Chinese Civil Examinations

Hilde De Weerdt

[short_description] From the end of the sixth century onwards the written civil service examinations became a staple of life in Imperial China. Hilde de Weerdt retraces the development of the examination system.

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Computer Science

The Origins of Python

Lambert Meertens

[short_description] Since its debut in 1991, Python’s accessibility and rich functionality has helped it gather a huge userbase. Its design was influenced by creator Guido van Rossum’s involvement with an earlier language, ABC.

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Psychology

The Scent of Flavor

Linda Bartoshuk

[short_description] It was only in the nineteenth century that flavor was recognized as a sensation distinct from taste. Linda Bartoshuk retraces our understanding of flavor, drawing from her life’s work on the topic.

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Computer Science

When Existence is Inefficient

Allyn Jackson

[short_description] How hard is it to solve a problem when a solution is guaranteed to exist? It is to address questions like this that the theoretical computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou invented the complexity class PPAD.

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Computer Science

Wacky Jabber

Douglas Hofstadter

[short_description] A sweetish suite of machine translations of a pseudo-Swedish paragraph concocted by Douglas Hofstadter. The resulting gobbledygook reveals the zombie-like nature of these highly vaunted programs.

Short Notes

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Physics

On the Laser-Fusion Milestone

Daniel Jassby

[short_description] On December 5, 2022, the National Ignition Facility recorded the first energy gain in fusion history. However, the prospect of fusion energy in the near future remains distant, writes Daniel Jassby.

Book Reviews

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Mathematics

A Truncated Manuscript

Pierre Schapira

[short_description] In the mid-1980s, an enigmatic document began circulating in French mathematical circles. Pierre Schapira casts a critical eye over Alexander Grothendieck's Récoltes et Semailles, now published officially for the first time.

Experiment Reviews

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Physics

Planetary Intelligence

Charles Lineweaver

[short_description] Can the idea of intelligence as a collective property be extended to a planetary scale? A recent paper explores possible trajectories for the long-term evolution of inhabited planets, including our own.

Biographies

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Physics

Satyendra Nath Bose

Counting in the Dark

Partha Ghose

[short_description] Satyendra Nath Bose was a legendary figure in twentieth century physics. Partha Ghose, a former student of Bose, pays tribute to a trailblazer who helped forge a new direction in quantum mechanics.

Letters to the Editors

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Sylvia Berryman

[short_description] Could a single implement, such as the Antikythera mechanism, change the understanding of the cosmos? Sylvia Berryman is wary of viewing mechanistic pictures as unique keys to historical worldviews.

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Erin Hall

[short_description] In the interwar period, a team from the University of Chicago oversaw an archaeological dig in Megiddo, modern day Israel. The dig’s findings, and shortcomings, proved foundational for archaeology.

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### A Riddling Mirror of Nature

Paul Keyser

[short_description] When studying the origins and nature of the Antikythera mechanism, Paul Keyser cautions scholars to be mindful not to “retroject things seen or deduced from one era back into times well prior.”

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Paul Cartledge

[short_description] Paul Cartledge describes how the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism has challenged long-held views about the ability of Greek scholars in antiquity to translate theory into technology.

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Kyriakos Efstathiou

[short_description] Was the Antikythera mechanism the first computer in world history? Kyriakos Efstathiou makes the case for the predictive powers of the device, which have now been tested in detail.

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Richard Noakes

[short_description] Is scientific advancement entrapped by its historical context, or could history be the driving force behind such progress? Richard Noakes and David Kordahl discuss.

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### On the Temporal Structure of Consciousness

Michael Herzog & Adrien Doerig

[short_description] That consciousness is discrete and not continuous, Michael Herzog and Adrien Doerig agree with Rufin VanRullen. However, the timescale of these conscious percepts remains up for debate.

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Peter White

[short_description] Peter White responds to Rufin VanRullin and Michael Herzog, arguing against the timescales they propose for the temporal resolution of consciousness. Are there even frames of consciousness, White wonders?

ISSN #2576–4403