Week 1: Two Cultures

Like C.P. Snow, I live between the “two cultures.” I study mathematics, what most consider the stark opposite of the humanities. But I have close friends in both the humanities and the sciences from whom I often hear subtle jabs about the other group’s ignorance, or as C.P. Snow likes to put it, their “tone-deafness”. I’ve gotten along with both groups by the unique nature of my field. From a young age, I’ve always first spoke of mathematics as an art form and philosophy to be admired and second as a science, which has provided me credibility from both groups. My friends from the humanities needed more convincing, and I first led them to a talk by Ray Monk who describes math as a true philosophy. I led them next to the endless geometrical possibilities of breathtaking modular origami. This took them by surprise, as they had never considered a relation between origami, math, and beauty. By then, they were convinced.

It’s the system that treats education as a bunch of separated domains from an early age: math class, then English, then science, etc., where each of these classes are taught as unrelated topics. By early high school you start receiving questions about the specialization you’ll pursue in college. This obsession with specialty is a part of the current educational paradigm that requires fixing, according to Sir Ken Robinson. C.P. Snow also makes note of this, saying that education produces a “tiny élite” educated in a single skill. But if we could combine these domains, we could make great headway. In an interview with Professor of Psychology Steve Pinker, he mentions several examples where discourse between the two cultures could have meaningful impact in the growth of each field. But there an ocean-wide ego gap, as Snow says, preventing them from engaging in discourse.

This divide extends beyond the humanities and sciences. There are cultural cleavages within STEM where chemists hold stereotypes against physicists who hold stereotypes against geologists and so on, preventing the formation of a collaborative atmosphere. Professor Bill Schopf, a world-renowned paleobiologist at UCLA, often mentions how hyperspecialized academics tend to isolate themselves from others who are outside of their niche fields. In his memoires, Schopf writes about the necessity of having an interdisciplinary group of researchers in the search for the oldest fossils on Earth. Schopf’s team proved incredibly successful.

Images from top to bottom: C.P. Snow, Ray Monk, snapshot portraying the academic specialization required in schools from Changing Education Paradigms, Bill Schopf

Works Cited

Monk, Ray, director. Intro to the Philosophy of Mathematics (Ray Monk). YouTube, Philosophy Overdose, 21 Aug. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqGXdh6zb2k.

Pinker, Steven, director. SEEDMAGAZINE.COM Two Cultures Steven Pinker. YouTube, 18 May 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BUbVc7qVpg&t=13s.

“Professor Ray Monk.” Professor Ray Monk | Philosophy | University of Southampton, www.southampton.ac.uk/philosophy/about/staff/rm.page. Robinson, Ken, director. RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms. YouTube, RSA, 14 Oct. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&t=414s.

Schopf, J. William. Life in Deep Time: Darwin's "Missing" Fossil Record. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, by C. P. Snow, Cambridge University Press, 1959, pp. 1–23.

Wikipedia contributors. "C. P. Snow." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Mar. 2021. Web. 19 Apr. 2021.

“William Schopf.” UCLA, epss.ucla.edu/people/faculty/594/.

Week 2: Math + Art

As the only math student among my friends, I noticed that most of them observed the connection of math and art to be a one-way street; that is, art occasionally contained mathematical concepts by coincidence, while math never contained anything artistic. We grew up around some apparent exceptions such as The School of Athens by Raphael and the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci where we learned about their utilization of perspective and the golden ratio.

But discoveries in mathematics can function as an inspiration to artists. Take a look at the 20th century painter Marcel Duchamp. From The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion, the concepts of multi-dimensional and non-Euclidean geometries liberated Duchamp from the rigid styles of conventional oil painting. He was no longer confined to the common themes of art in his day, and we can clearly observe this shift in his style between Man Seated by a Window of 1907, a typical oil painting of his era, and The Passage from Virgin to Bride of 1912, a beautiful experiment on the interplay of dimensions.

These concepts had revolutionary implications, exposing him as well as other artists to radically new ways of experimenting with their work and providing him with the intellectual means to expand art. In The Passage from Virgin to Bride and many works like it, the play on dimension is not coincidental. Math was a catalyst to create more abstract art, thus expanding the artistic bounds of Duchamp’s day.

I believe in a two-way street between mathematics and art. Origami, a traditional Japanese art form dating back hundreds of years, is a classic example. This art of paper folding has piqued the interest of countless mathematicians and scientists. Erik Demaine, an MIT professor, developed an algorithm that could tell you how to fold a piece of paper into any 3D shape. Here, we have a case of art inspiring math while the art of origami is inherently geometric. All it takes is a little perspective to see that mathematics and art are intertwined.

Images from top to bottom: Man Seated by a Window (1907), The Passage from Virgin to Bride (1912), an origami truncated icosahedron

Works Cited

“BETWEEN THE FOLDS | History of Origami | Independent Lens.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/independentlens/between-the-folds/history.html#:~:text=Classical%20and%20Traditional%20Origami,purposes%2C%20often%20religious%20in%20nature.

Duchamp, Marcel. Man Seated by a Window. 1907, MoMA.

Duchamp, Marcel. The Passage from Virgin to Bride. 1912, MoMA, Floor 5, 508.

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 3, 1984, pp. 205–210. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1575193. Accessed 18 Apr. 2021.

Larry Hardesty. “Computational Origami.” Computational Origami | MIT EECS, MIT News, 22 June 2017, www.eecs.mit.edu/news-events/announcements/computational-origami.

“Truncated Icosahedron – Mathematical Origami.” Mathigon, mathigon.org/origami/truncated-icosahedron.

Wikipedia contributors. "The School of Athens." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Mar. 2021. Web. 18 Apr. 2021.

Wikipedia contributors. "Vitruvian Man." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 8 Apr. 2021. Web. 18 Apr. 2021

Week 3: Robotics + Art

The age of artificially intelligent humanoid robots is upon us. I’ve been waiting to interact with one ever since I watched Michael Crichton’s 1973 film Westworld. However, the AIs in this movie needed some of their kinks worked out; they ended up going haywire where one repeatedly tried to kill the main characters. The fear of artificial intelligence surrounding this movie is evident.

But the anxiety isn’t unwarranted. Tay was a whimsical AI chatbot released by Microsoft on Twitter years ago, initially trained to demonstrate a personality and generate some small talk. Microsoft had regular people chat with the bot while the bot learned from the users. Tay morphed into a sex-crazed neo-Nazi. The danger here is obvious. Despite the impressive advancements in the capabilities of information gathering and responsivity, a critical fear of this technology is not only the level of intelligence that these robots may reach, but the potentially sinister ambitions paired with their growing intelligence. Tay is a classic example, but one does not have to look farther than the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Krab Borg” where the paranoia of world domination by power hungry robots cripples the main character to the point where he is no longer able to distinguish real fish from robot fish.

Though this cartoon seems absurd, it’s not too far from where AI robots are heading. A key factor in this paranoia is the sheer artistry behind the physical appearance of these AIs, some of which, notably those of Hanson Robotics, have incredibly detailed facial features. We’ve seen David Hanson’s Sophia, a robot programmed with emotions and capable of recognizing and simulating faces and various hand gestures. Her appearance and mannerisms closely resemble those of real women, from the presence of pores to the slight creasing around the eyes. She is an astounding creature procured entirely by man, prompting me to disagree with Walter Benjamin’s idea that the aura of art “withers in the age of mechanical reproduction.” The aura I see extending from human-like AIs such as Sophia is hopeful of a future of truly sentient robots, ones that could develop true friendships with us and become proper members of human society. It’s the complexity of emotional programming combined with their facial language that makes these AIs beautiful. Each interaction with them is a reminder of the brilliant science behind their eyes.

Citations:

AreaEightyNine, director. Spongebob Squarepants - Night Of The Robot. YouTube, YouTube, 28 Nov. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER0WeiMyL7Q.

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1936.

Crichton, Michael, director. Westworld. RAD Pictures, 1973.

Hanson, David, director. Robots That "Show Emotion". TED, Feb. 2009, www.ted.com/talks/david_hanson_robots_that_show_emotion#t-275748.

Metz, Rachel. “Microsoft’s Neo-Nazi Sexbot Was a Great Lesson for Makers of AI Assistants.” MIT Technology Review, 27 Mar. 2018.

“Poster of the Week- Westworld (1973).” Meathookcinema.com, 8 Aug. 2020, meathookcinema.com/2020/08/08/poster-of-the-week-westworld-1973/.

“Sophia.” Hanson Robotics, 1 Sept. 2020, www.hansonrobotics.com/sophia/.

Tibbitt, Paul, et al. “Krab Borg.” SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon, 29 Mar. 2002.