{"id":4949,"date":"2019-05-15T05:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4949"},"modified":"2019-05-12T07:28:09","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T14:28:09","slug":"mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-iii-chapter-14-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/05\/mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-iii-chapter-14-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Science of Discworld III’: Chapter 14, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first half of the fourteenth chapter of Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Watch<\/i>, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to talk mathematics and infinity. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Science of Discworld III<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any super personal stories or anecdotes to share in relation to the first half of this chapter. Which is okay in my book, since I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t relate to EVERYTHING here, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to force that sort of stuff. Thus, this is going to be on the shorter end of reviews. But that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean the content is less engaging. I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun it was to read this chapter. Part of that was because, as the text admits, this is all a little ridiculous. On a day-to-day basis, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like many of us have a useful application for the concept of infinity. Often, we use it in a colloquial sense to me A WHOLE LOT, but I love that this chapter digs in to the notion of exactly how big that might be. The short answer: bigger than we can ever conceptualize. Because\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand I had truly never thought of it this way\u00e2\u20ac\u201dno matter how big of a number we could define, we can always just add one<\/i> and have a bigger number. So, why infinity? Why does infinity even matter?<\/p>\n

One of the many things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll take away from these Science of Discworld<\/i> books is that there ARE ways to educate people on complicated scientific or mathematical concepts and still keep it entertaining. Am I ever truly going to have a practical need to explain infinity or talk about David Hilbert or Georg Cantor? No, not really, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fucking COOL AS HELL to be able to talk about Hilbert\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hotel or the concept of aleph-zero and how to denote bigger<\/i> infinities through counting. Oh my god, Hilbert\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hotel was SO GREAT. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s yet another thing that I had never heard of in any capacity anymore, and I feel like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something people would love to learn about, even if it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really interest them? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so strange and fun, but it teaches a fantastic concept in the process. I think the googol is a great example of that. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something I did<\/i> learn about in school (not until late in high school, though), and I remember learning that it was the nephew of a mathematician who came up with the term. I remember because<\/i> it was taught to me in a memorable way, and I imagine there are going to be things spread out throughout these four Science of Discworld <\/i>books that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll remember for a while because of how it was told to me.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty damn cool. Anyway, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eager to see if the next section does indeed talk about the science behind multiverse theory. A certain film has come out recently that I want to apply this kind of science to, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll say no more because: spoilers!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/Z0bHAF3IUwM<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now OUT!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"