Remembering Conway(solipsys.co.uk)

182 pointsby ColinWright6 anni fa18 comments

solipsys.co.uk

https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/RememberingConway.html?td13hn

10 comments

Years ago, I was sitting next to John Conway and another older Professor in a small computer lab in Fine Hall (Princeton's math building) while waiting to meet my advisor. What I remember most about listening in on their conversation was how much fun it seemed they were having. Especially Conway. It was like he was engrossed in a really fun game and was trying to come up with new ways of thinking about the rules. I think you can see that in his work too.

The pure joy he took in his work is something I admired.

Aperocky6 anni fa

Stood up a page on my website for this, got my parents running the game a couple times, and they commented: looks like how coronavirus spread.. Such is life.

http://aperocky.com/conway

rjsw6 anni fa

I had not realized where you live, I read a few other blog entries linked from this one.

The one time that I met him would probably have been at a Liverpool Mathematical Society event when I was at school.

ColinWright6 anni fa

I was President of the Liverpool Mathematical Society for a year, and maintain a connection. I only knew Conway when I was at Cambridge, 1983 to 1987, and at the time didn't know of his connection with Liverpool.

rjsw6 anni fa

I think this would have been in 1982. I was at school, he was visiting his parents and did a talk at Liverpool University.

ColinWright6 anni fa

Noted. I didn't come to the UK until September 1983, so this was before my time.

fixf6 anni fa

I have GOL running on my keyboard. You will be missed but not forgotten.

[deleted]6 anni fa

falcrist6 anni fa

Conway gave Brady Haran a very interesting interview a few years ago in which he contemplated his own mortality somewhat.

https://youtu.be/xOCe5HUObD4

It really puts some of these mathematical problems into perspective when you think about how they can span multiple human lives.

brownbat6 anni fa

VSauce tweeted a playlist of Conway's appearances on Numberphile, including that one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA&list=PLt5AfwLFPx...

I found the one you posted especially moving, but the others were good too.

gbronner6 anni fa

My recollection of conway is that he was quite good at backgammon -- good enough to make a bet to swap salaries with a lecturer over a public series of 30 (or more) games held in the common room. I believe that he won by one.

ColinWright6 anni fa

When I played with him we enjoyed the game, so it's not clear he was playing to win. Actually, it was clear ... he was not playing to win, he was playing to have an interesting game.

I'm sure he could have played seriously and thrashed me, had he chosen.

zaphar6 anni fa

I never met Conway myself. But I first encountered his Game of Life in a science fiction book I no longer remember the title of. The book didn't make much of an impression but the game did. I played it out on paper during long car trips and when we got our first computer the first code I ever wrote that wasn't "hello world" was an implementation of Conways Game of Life in gw-basic.

In a way his game helped start me on the path to the career I have now.

at_a_remove6 anni fa

Might have been OX by Piers Anthony, that was my first introduction.

Crespyl6 anni fa

For me was Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer, in which an alien appears at the Royal Ontario Museum and asks to speak with their paleontologist. Through that book, GoL was my on-ramp to all kinds of cellular automata, a-life, and procedural generation techniques that I still find fascinating.

zaphar6 anni fa

OX sounds like it might be the one.

brudgers6 anni fa

Condolences on your loss.

pacman1286 anni fa

xkcd has a tribute to Conway today: https://xkcd.com/2293/

chris_va6 anni fa

funny choice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA