Mathematician John Horton Conway died yesterday of COVID-19.
April 12, 2020 7:41 AM   Subscribe

 
 .
  .
..
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 7:44 AM on April 12, 2020 [67 favorites]


.
posted by Alterscape at 7:55 AM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by Old Kentucky Shark at 7:56 AM on April 12, 2020


I worked on agent-based modeling projects all the way back in high school. That subfield owes Conway everything.

., and thank you.
posted by capricorn at 7:56 AM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


:(

.
posted by silence at 7:57 AM on April 12, 2020


In fact, his work is helping with COVID-19 response because it paved the way to be able to model the effects of individuals social distancing.
posted by capricorn at 7:57 AM on April 12, 2020 [15 favorites]


.
posted by suetanvil at 8:00 AM on April 12, 2020


Was very sad to hear this new break yesterday. What a figure in mathematics he was.

And as much as Conway was openly annoyed with the popular fixation on Life (justified given how much more complex his career worth of work was), it's also a remarkable touchstone in popular awareness of an otherwise hard-to-sell idea like cellular automata; he captured the imagination of a lot of amateur and budding mathematicians with that, and it's fair to say I think that there'd have been far less good work done in that territory without his having set that in motion.
posted by cortex at 8:00 AM on April 12, 2020 [16 favorites]


Life, death, and the Monster: Conway speaks to Numberphile in 2014.

.
posted by samw at 8:03 AM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by DoveBrown at 8:04 AM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by hippybear at 8:07 AM on April 12, 2020


{|}
posted by madcaptenor at 8:07 AM on April 12, 2020 [9 favorites]


Ok I'm done with this virus. How do we set it on fire?
posted by Young Kullervo at 8:19 AM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:25 AM on April 12, 2020


May his trip to wherever is next be on a very comfortable glider gun.

.
posted by delfin at 8:29 AM on April 12, 2020 [8 favorites]


.
posted by potrzebie at 8:29 AM on April 12, 2020


Filed under horribly ironic death that a somewhat inefficient un-alive replicator did him in.

.
posted by lalochezia at 8:32 AM on April 12, 2020 [12 favorites]


This is sad news. I still have the badge he gave me hung up in my office, not that I will be seeing my office anytime soon.
posted by klausman at 8:35 AM on April 12, 2020 [9 favorites]


Winning Ways is a brilliant book — it draws the reader into advanced topics, like surreal numbers, ordinals, transfinite induction, but using (ostensibly) childish games and frequent jokes.
posted by cyanistes at 8:46 AM on April 12, 2020 [6 favorites]


.
posted by The_Auditor at 8:51 AM on April 12, 2020


My dad took me to one of his lectures at a math conference when I was a kid. I just had to call my dad and let him know.
This sucks.
.
posted by sciencegeek at 8:52 AM on April 12, 2020


As an at best amateur mathematician, I have long appreciated Conway's ability to communicate interesting, accessible but non-trivial mathematics. I have (and will keep) treasured versions of "On Numbers and Games" and "Winning Ways".

Conway's Game of Life served me well as a programming exercise for CS students, as it is simple enough but any implementation contains a number of good things to learn, and it allows for simple graphics output that is fun to watch and easy to check visually. As well, it is easy to provide follow on problems for those interested.

I also learned a lot about Godel numbering from building an interpreter for FRACTRAN.

He will be missed.

{|}
posted by Death and Gravity at 9:08 AM on April 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


.
posted by Foosnark at 9:19 AM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by cosmac at 9:36 AM on April 12, 2020


My first Ask Metafilter answer mentioned Conway in 2004: https://ask.metafilter.com/6243/Why-do-ordered-lists-in-open-source-documentation-start-with-zero#128687

This was a little while after I had seen him mention how to count at a talk he gave in my old math department. The way he thought about things ... everything! It was eye opening.

May he rest in peace.
posted by jjray at 9:41 AM on April 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


.
posted by youarenothere at 9:46 AM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by ktkt at 10:09 AM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by eclectist at 10:19 AM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by eruonna at 10:20 AM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by Gorgik at 10:29 AM on April 12, 2020


.. : .. : .. : ..
posted by The otter lady at 10:49 AM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:23 AM on April 12, 2020


Shit.

He was a genius.
posted by biogeo at 11:41 AM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


.
posted by xigxag at 11:59 AM on April 12, 2020


.
.
.
posted by doctornemo at 12:11 PM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:12 PM on April 12, 2020



   ◼
       ◼
 ◼◼◼


(Attempt at a glider construct, it cycles in the rules of the game and continues forever or the edge of the current board. )
posted by sammyo at 12:12 PM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


.
posted by tychotesla at 12:37 PM on April 12, 2020


I built the Game of Life in JavaScript a few years back as an exercise. It was neat. This is a real bummer.
posted by brundlefly at 12:46 PM on April 12, 2020


Well, crap. [there's a joke to be made here about social distancing and having too-few neighbors]


.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:01 PM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]



posted by bz at 1:23 PM on April 12, 2020



⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜
⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜

Sorry about the over-wide glider gun. I didn't think about that that would work on mobile. If a mod could delete the bigger one, that would be great.
posted by bcd at 2:20 PM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 2:51 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by inexorably_forward at 3:39 PM on April 12, 2020


I saw Conway give a talk as an undergrad. It was in Dwinelle Hall at Berkeley, a completely uncharacteristic location for a math talk, but larger than the lecture halls in Evans.* I honestly remember very little about it, other than that Conway was a tremendously engaging speaker and very good at drawing polytopes. There was something about platonic solids, if I recall correctly.

*I was told that the lecture halls in Evans were build in anticipation of holding the largest of calculus classes. I don't know if that's true, but, if you know anything about Berkeley calculus classes, it was clearly some halcyon days of UCs being funded. I think 10 Evans seats about 150, maybe a bit less.
posted by hoyland at 3:58 PM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


      .
    .   . 
  .   .   .
.   .   .   .
(That's in honor of his work on the dense packing of spheres.)

John Conway was a giant. And a wonderful human being.

Guardian article from 2015
posted by brambleboy at 4:07 PM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


About 8 years ago I had dinner with Conway, after a talk he'd given. At first I sat quietly, being a bit starstruck, but then he, out of the blue, started talking about politics. I thoroughly disagreed with everything he said, and we got into a loud debate, which ended with me storming off in frustration. At this point I have absolutely no recollection of what the argument was about, but I'll never forget the encounter itself.

.
posted by epimorph at 4:15 PM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


.
posted by oceanjesse at 4:24 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:49 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by equalpants at 4:51 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by amery at 4:52 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by chbrooks at 5:00 PM on April 12, 2020


Ω
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:06 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by Proofs and Refutations at 5:07 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by carsonb at 5:41 PM on April 12, 2020


..
..
posted by otherchaz at 6:05 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by riverlife at 6:24 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by R343L at 6:59 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by Canageek at 7:11 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:26 PM on April 12, 2020


fucking hell.
.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 9:32 PM on April 12, 2020


.
posted by filtergik at 2:23 AM on April 13, 2020


here's my small john horton conway story: years ago we were both at the gathering4gardner, a math/magic/puzzle conference. as i walked through the lobby between sessions, i passed a small group where conway was holding court. i stopped to listen in just as he was saying "...so who here has a six sided die? anyone? anyone?". the group looked at each other and shrugged.

i happen to always keep one on me (from binions, natch), so i pulled it out of my jeans' watch pocket and handed it to him. "yes, thank you!" he said taking it, and for the briefest moment he gave me that quizzical look, as if saying "do you always carry one of these around?".

he then held the die with his thumb and fingers covering opposite faces. the 1 pip face was visible facing up, and the 2 pip face was visible facing away from his palm. "so you see", he said, "the one face is showing, and opposite of it is the six" (twisting his wrist to show everyone). "and the two face is showing, which is opposite the..." (he paused). "five" everyone replied. "good, my thumb and fingers are covering the three and four faces… here's the question... what face is under my thumb? the three or the four?"

no one had any idea. i wondered if there was actually some standard or whether it was random. after a few moments of silence, conway revealed the answer: "under my thumb is the three. because all six sided dice follow the 'counting/counter' rule. if you look at the corner of the die adjacent to the one/two/three faces, you'll see that the numbers are arranged around this corner in a counter-clockwise direction. you can always remember this by noting that the 'counting' numbers go counter-clockwise. one/two/three and four/five/six both go counter-clockwise around their corners". everyone was impressed. and conway handed me back my die with a slight bow of his head. "thank you for that" he said.

for me this was perfect conway. an piece of arcana at the border of numerics and culture, for which he had coined a mnemonic term that i still remember to this day. and personally, i'll always treasure those seconds when he took my die and looked at me askance. i felt at that moment that we were at the same level of weirdness, and being weird like john conway is maybe the highest calling i can imagine.

{|}
posted by bruceo at 3:05 AM on April 13, 2020 [20 favorites]


.
posted by jquinby at 5:45 AM on April 13, 2020


.
posted by Mrs Potato at 9:12 AM on April 13, 2020


.

waah. I'm one of those geeks who was fascinated by the game of life when it first came out. as cortex said above, you didn't have to be a mathematician to understand what he was explaining.
posted by Mrs Potato at 9:16 AM on April 13, 2020


.
posted by mdoar at 10:48 AM on April 13, 2020


.
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 10:56 AM on April 13, 2020


xkcd nails it
posted by bruceo at 11:23 AM on April 13, 2020 [16 favorites]


you can always remember this by noting that the 'counting' numbers go counter-clockwise.

!!! You know, I was really impressed while visiting a museum in Barcelona last fall, that they had some old Roman dice on display with the same patterns of pips as we use today. Now I'm so curious as to whether they had the same arrangement or not!
posted by traveler_ at 2:47 PM on April 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:19 PM on April 13, 2020




xkcd does indeed nail it. First time an xkcd comic has made me cry.

.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 10:31 AM on April 15, 2020


« Older "A truly remarkable, if slightly clunky, tool"   |   And Now, A Walk in the Black Forest Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments