Friday, March 9, 2007

Week Four

QUESTION FOR TOM: I'm looking for an Einstein quote you mentioned during winter term about Einstein not caring if the test of the bending of light supported Relativity Theory or not - that the theory was still right. I had heard something like this years ago - that Einstein said, "If Relativity Theory is wrong, that's too bad for God." The closest thing I can find is the general quote: "If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts," but I can't find a legitimate source for it. Do you remember where you came across what you shared along these lines in class?

UPDATE: I find that my writing has become a strange attractor. As I read, nearly every paragraph sends me back to my laptop to add to my writing, which sends me out to research, which brings me back to writing. I think before I plow all the way through any more books I need to just sit down and come to grips with this manuscript in full. I don't think I will be released from the grip of the pull of this strange attractor until I at least have a rough draft of the entire manuscript.

At this point I have a fully complete rough draft of chapter 2 (Pattern) -- tedious figures and all -- which needs a LOT of polishing yet. I have also been working more globally on the rest of the manuscript rather than trying to write from start to finish as I had been doing.

I end chapter 2 (Pattern) with fractals, the grand finale being the M-set. I begin chapter 3 (Power) also with the M-set, expressing that all this beauty and complexity can be generated with a mathematical statement of only 6 characters. Part of the power of mathematical language is its brevity.

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