A Nightmare

After a long pause, a comic. Friday this time.

Math Wizard in Action!

Standing astride the World of Math, Quadratic Formula staff in hand and readying the Theta Bomb, he prepares to deliver a beatdown to a smack-talking triangle.

This is exactly what it feels like to solve difficult problems.

My current favorite math history book is Robert Kaplan's The Nothing That Is, which discusses the history of the development of the number and the philosophical issues surrounding it as well as the very concepts of nothing, nonexistence, and absence.

Towards the end he examines how these ideas can make what seem like sensible questions into utter hash. Treating "nothing" as any other object (though linguistically a noun) leads to questions like "Why is there something rather than nothing?" Speaking as though "nonexistence" is just an alternative activity, people are said to experience their own absence in proclamations regarding who would have been better off if they had never lived. The final chapter is called "The Unthinkable" for good reason.

The title comes from a Wallace Stevens poem.