=======================================================================
Published whenever April 1998 Vol 4. No. 1
=======================================================================
THIS ISSUE: FOCUS ON NEW CURRICULUM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Math Summit in Oregon 4. Jay Baldwin and the HyperCar
2. Festivities in Santa Cruz 5. The Asian Meltdown (Editorial)
3. Internet Update 6. Note from 4D Solutions
Note: if the header looks funny, adjust your font to fixed pitch
=======================================================================
1. Math Summit in Oregon
On October 2nd of last year, heavy hitters from the global math
community showed up in Oregon to powwow around the 21st century
theme of a new Renaissance in math ed. Sir Roger Penrose,
logician Keith Devlin and dynamical systems theorest Ralph
Abraham were among the illuminati present.
Why Oregon of all places? Well, according the Dr. Devlin,
Oregon is the new 'state of high tech', like one of those
oil-rich jewels in the Persian Gulf i.e. kuwait:oil::
oregon:electronics. We call it the Silicon Forest (move
over San Jose!).
Yours trully was present as well, to deliver a workshop in
synergetics entitled 'Beyond Flatland: Geometry for the 21st
Century', complete with webslides on VHS TV (including
Strucktures by de Jong), computer animations (Erickson and
Hawkins), high tech models (R. Chu) and color overheads.
Teachers were talking high frequency jitterbugs within the
hour, pumped to deliver the new material to their 5th graders
back home. I gave a similar talk to 8th graders in San Jose
last month -- don't want Silicon Valley to fall *too* far
behind.
During the Summit, we previewed some of 'Life By the Numbers'
currently airing on PBS. As Keith Devlin writes at the MAA
website, the time has come to put old stereotypes about
mathematicians behind us
2. New Curriculum Festivities in Santa Cruz
Digerati converged for April Fool's to knosh snacks and take
stock of some no foolin' new techno-wizardry, organized into
three venues by Bonnie DeVarco, virtual communities
anthropologist.
Nearest the pool, Bruce Damer, author of 'Avatars!', showcased
the interactive design of virtual biota for placement in
on-line worlds, including swoop-around views from the back of a
butterfly of a fantasy island, complete with fractal lightening
and thunder sound effects.
Nearest the fireplace, fresh from JavaOne with some Sun
heavyweights (new friends) attending, Gerald de Jong delivered
a high level discourse on Struckology aka tensegrity
structuring using Struck, a model of beautiful code. Given the
talent in the audience (e.g. chaos mathematician Ralph
Abraham), we can be sure Gerald's sophisticated presentation
was not lost on all hearers -- with the rest of us free to
admire the screen animations and stunning stills on the two
monitors.
And in the side parlor, video tools of tomorrow, including the
newly affordable pace-setters like Iomega's BuzzBox with fast
SCSI for just $199. Here is where our leather-clad "old
hippie" sacred geometry couple stripped to the tatoos (well, he
did anyway) and flashed secret symbols via webcam to Russians
monitoring from Lourdes (actually, we only had the one phone
line, and that was monopolized by Bruce and his ActiveWorlds
demo -- but it's the thought that counts, right?). We turned
down the lights for better X-Files effect. Sound wild? Welcome
to California!
Some of our party who couldn't make it in the flesh showed up
at prearranged coordinates in an ActiveWorld, as Avatars! John
Braley's had three eyes. Rick Bono got lost, but managed to
find us long enough to say "Hi!"
3. Internet Update
You may have noticed the BFI website has entered a time warp
and doesn't keep pace with events -- truth to tell, BFI has
never been on the front lines but hopes some will suggest it
served a catalyzing function. At least some mention of the
January Scientific American article on tensegrity and cell
biology made it to the Events page. But nothing about the
subsequent article re tensegrity in the American Scientist.
Most obviously missing is a link to Synergetics itself, the
full text of which remains on-line, with each numbered
paragraph anchored, the better to serve as a nets notes
repository for those of us rolling our own.
The Oregon Curriculum Network (my site) mixes links to 'Beyond
Flatland' geometry with more traditional material re the
calculus (e.g. Descartes' Deficit) and new curriculum for the
computer age (we Silicon Foresters place a premium on such
curriculum). Lets all wave goodbye to the "graphing
calculator" era and give our kids some real computers to play
with! -- a central plank in my platform, as shared via the Math
Forum (check calc-reform and/or links from my Math Learning
Center memo -- Math Makeover has some new links too).
4. Jay Baldwin and the HyperCar
Jay drove two hours each way in his high end Saab sedan to meet
with me in San Jose recently (thanks Jay! -- I was purposely
giving Bay Area public transit a workout, but this would have
been a push). Jay is the author of 'Bucky Works' (John Wiley
and Sons) and is featured in an earlier edition of this
Chronicler for his work on the pillow dome (part of our meeting
involved excavating an empty drum of Tefzel from the shed out
back -- an event I was pleased to capture on video).
I can't tell you a lot about the HyperCar here, except to say
that Jay and Amory Lovins are collaborating on a vehicle
designed to show off maximized, optimized energy efficiency
values. A lot of the best ideas will likely be cannibalized
and incorporated into the more inefficient guzzler throwbacks
we consider high tech today, but Jay has some hope of getting
the real HyperCar off the drawing board and out for a test
drive as well. With his Armani suit, raybans, and 'injun
chief' wiseman looks, he cuts an impressive figure.
Jay has always loved cars and in the days before freeways was
one of the first young New Jerseyites to get a look at an
unspoiled Yellowstone National Park (it took a week each way to
make the drive). So stricken with the beauty and freedom of
the wild west, he resolved to build a hot rod "escape pod" for
rocketing westward for good -- which is exactly what he did,
making his story an all-American classic.
5. The Asian Meltdown (Editorial)
Walden Bello, former director of Food First, and contributing
editor to the internet-based Focus on Trade, published out of
Bangkok, provides some telling analysis of the Korean economy
-- a case study in what happens when strong native talent is
sacrificed to the short term moneymaking urge.
Instead of reinvesting in curriculum and working at cutting
edge problems, Korean inventiveness was sidelined as MBA types
reaped a cash bonanza and ploughed it into luxury resorts,
condos, and flashy vehicles for themselves. That kept Korea
reliant on parts and designs from overseas, primarily from
Japan, with a lower total budget for R&D than giant IBM's alone.
As Dr. Richard Meier of UC Berkeley points out, this kind of
over-dependence is completely unnecessary, as his Korean
students were among the most creative he has ever encountered
in his long career as an engineer and globally-aware planner.
The lessons for the USA are obvious. The lure of easy money at
the expense of doing the hard work of serious R&D is an age-old
problem. As capital controllers squeeze out longer term values
in search of continued 20% growth for their already over-
inflated portfolios, long term planners will inevitably team up
with capitalists more vested in their personal reputations for
wisdom and industry than in a talent for keeping piggy backers
rolling in dough.
Public offerings to share profits with a leisure class of so-
called capitalists who take a "life owes me" approach should
not be taken for granted. The stock market was never designed
to be an entitlements program and the percentage of pension
funds committed to risk capital accounts (i.e. stocks) is not a
figure for which the USA government is accountable i.e. no
FDIC-like bailout of failed venture capital investment schemes
was ever a part of the USA's public mandate.
When the underlying problem that needs to be addressed is sheer
ignorance and neglect of vital R&D, then the old doors to top
management in the securities business may close for remodeling,
and reopen only through a serious commitment to learning some
new ropes. Perhaps Asia has a head start on taking this
ancient market dynamic to heart, while the USA's most gullible
simply refuse to read the writing on the wall, thinking the
global economy is somehow permenantly enslaved to Wall Street's
bull-minded (a dangerous, self-indulgent fiction, as many Wall
Streeters will be the first to admit).
A track record of simply being "motivated by money" may not be
the ticket for much longer (certainly Korea is learning this
lesson the hard way) -- which short term fixation can lead to a
lot of irrelevant "twitch game" reflexes, as when a kid majors
in some videogame and then finds it's been taken off the
market, as inevitably happens eventually. Life moves on.
6. Note from 4D Solutions
Thanks to all who keep in touch, share tidbits. This
communication is distributed free via the internet by 4D
Solutions, a private solutions provider based in Portland,
Oregon. Kirby Urner is responsible for the content and any
inaccuracies or omissions should be brought to his attention.
Email your news and comments to: pdx4d@teleport.com
This and back issues archived at:
http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/4dchron.html
---------------------------------------------------------
Kirby T. Urner http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/kirby.html
4D Solutions http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/ [PGP OK]
---------------------------------------------------------
****************************************************************************
* To post to the list: email mathedcc@archives.math.utk.edu *
* To unsubscribe, send mail to: majordomo@archives.math.utk.edu *
* In the mail message, enter ONLY the words: unsubscribe mathedcc *
* Words in the Subject: line are NOT processed! *
* Archives at http://archives.math.utk.edu/hypermail/mathedcc/ *
****************************************************************************