Hi SuperForest
Today I’ve been thinking about Maths (or “Math” to use the Americanism as I shall hereafter;). It’s not something I do often, but Tom Henderson, mathematics lecturer and improv comedian, and his “Punk Math Philosophy” are the reasons why.
As he says on his Kickstarter video:
Punk identifies problems, Math solves problems.
check out Tom’s Kickstarter page here
Sure, it may sound a little gimmicky, but (as Henderson explains in an interview with Technoccult) in his view, it’s a tool of empowerment – in the same way that punk enabled anyone to participate in a band and express themselves, math can democratise a form of effective engagement:
It is this:
1) People use the average Joe’s poor mathematics as a way to control, exploit, and numerically screw him over.
2) Mathematics is the subject in which, regardless of what the authorities tell you is true, you can verify every last iota of truth, with a minimum of equipment.
if you are concerned with the empowerment of everyday people, and you believe that it’s probably a good idea to be skeptical of authority you could do worse than to develop your skills at being able to talk math in such a way that anyone can ask questions, can express curiosity, can imagine applying it in the most weird-ass off-the-wall ways possible.
So, it seems couched in essentially ‘negative’ terms – opposition, oppression, The Man – but the message in there is positive: if you can engage with it, maths can provide a toolset that will enable us to better evaluate what we are told and better express ourselves. Or, at the least, talking about maths in an entertaining fashion is fun.
Henderson is looking to publish a math book based on this philosophy. It’s already met its Kickstarter funding goal, but you can continue to donate here if punk math appeals to you . But more than the book, I was happy to discover Henderson and his partner in math magic, Nick Horton’s, excellent podcasts: Maths for Primates – entertaining, illuminating and funny. If you feel like you’re not getting the fun of math, or that you used to love it, but your number-brain has become rusty from lack of use, you could do far worse than have a listen: I tried it out as “background” during an evening at work and found myself engaging with types of infinity, rather than typing my document (so, good in the broader sense – notsomuch in the multi-tasking workplace sense!).
Infinite Love in all its sizes
P
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