The completion of a cycle puts one at peace

L and I completed three projects recently.

1. Brian Greene's string theory documentary The Elegant Universe which I first saw on NOVA in 2003. We watched it online across several days, completing it last night. It's three hours long and there's no math to speak of, but it's fun and the production value is high and you get a rounded overview of the sociological history of string theory by the time you're through.

The two strongest impressions I came away with:

1. the idea that the Big Bang may have been caused by the collision of two higher dimensional membranes.
2. my own sense that we have a new generation of conspicuously precocious mathematicians - almost like a mathematical leisure-class - so comfortable with such a high level of competence that they seem at some point to have become almost bored.

Q: What to do with all this useless brilliance?
A: Let the physicists worry about experimental verification. We'll do their calculations for them when they need us to, but in our spare time we're going to hang out with our bored and brilliant friends and create mathematical art.

And eventually the new art project - string theory - is so rich and beautiful that it's very depth and consistency become "proof" of it's truth.

And we've all been there before, haven't we?

2. Dexter, season 4. Entertaining television. The surprise at the end of the last episode was as satisfying as almost anything I've seen on tv.

3. Creative Thinking by J.G. Bennett. I read it first in 1995, and again several times since. The less said about this book the better.