All posts by bsowell

About bsowell

I am currently a first year graduate student in computer science at Cornell University. I did my undergraduate work at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, and grew up in Omaha, NE. This site is a collection of things I find interesting.

Fahrenheit 451

Books

Just finished reading Fahrenheit 451. It was selected for the Omaha Reads program, and I figured the least I could to was read the novel to show my support. It’s amazing how prescient Bradbury was in 1953. His vision of a society in which people exchange contemplation for a quick thrill seems quite similar to the MTV obessesed world we live in today. I am reminded of the study (pdf file) from a few months ago that found that fewer and fewer Americans are reading books. Clearly we are a long way from government sanctioned book burning, but the addictive and vapid television parlours of Fahrenheit 451 seem just around the corner. In fact, it strikes me that Bradbury’s dystopia is so frightening because it does not require the intervention of a totalitarian force. In Bradbury’s history, people stopped reading and writing books not because they were banned, but because there were other instantly gratifying means of entertainment. He also envisions a sort of political-correctness gone wild that allows only the dullest least offensive books to be published. These are not directives from above, but widespread movements supported by the majority of the population. It is difficult to imagine how one might prevent the formation of such a society when it is created within the context of a majority-rules democratic system. Perhaps it is a bit idealistic, but I suppose that just reading books like Fahrenheit 451 is a good start.

One quote I particularly liked: “‘I voted last election, same as everyone, and I laid it on the line for President Noble. I think he’s one of the nicest-looking men ever became president'” (96). — Sad, but unfortunately not always that far from the truth.

I think I’m going to continue the dystopian thing and read Brave New World next.

Math Structures

Math

In the past week or so, math has gone from the class that I spent the least amount of time on to the class that I’ve spent the most. Things were going along pretty smoothly until we hit the chapter on cardinality (the size of a set), and then things got dramatically more challenging. The proofs have gotten a lot more complicated, and in general things are a lot more abstract. In the previous sections there were a few essential processes to learn that could be applied to pretty much all the problems, but this new stuff requires a lot more creativity.

That said, set theory has also gotten pretty interesting. It really forces you to redefine your understanding of mathematical ideas. For instance, it was sort of interesting to learn that there are the same number of elements in the integer plane as there are on the number line – even though a plane can be thought of as an infinite number of number lines. The real numbers get even weirder. It turns out that there are as many numbers in the interval (0,1) as there are in the entire set of real numbers, but that there more subsets of the set of real numbers than there are real numbers themselves. These sets are all infinite, but they’re not all the same size!

Anyway, excuse the ramblings, I’ve got a take home test to do this weekend, so I’ve got math on the brain.

Midterm Break

Carleton

Five weeks down and five to go. It’s always somewhat astounding how quickly midterm break seems to come each term.

My parents came up for the day yesterday. We went to St. Paul for sushi and then went to a chamber orchestra. The food, music, and company were good, and I’m constantly impressed by the quality of the downtown area in St. Paul. There is a huge multi-part convention center that dominates the area, and it seems like there are a lot of neat cultural activities going on. We have a few minutes to walk around, and just by chance we happened across this big cultural fair that seemed to incorporate food and music from an astounding array of cultures. We didn’t have a chance to look around, since our concert was coming up, but it was pretty amazing to see the array of events that seem to be constantly occurring.

Anyway, enough gushing. Unfortunately, 6th week heralds a massive amount of work to accomplish in the coming days and weeks. I’d best get to it.

SPCO

Music

Wow. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra performed on campus this evening, and it was absolutely mind blowing. Not only is the SPCO really good on its own, but the guest conductor (who also played violin on a piece) was the former concermaster and assistant conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, and the solo violinst was Sarah Chang, who was really incredible.

The started with a Mozart symphony (k. 319, if anyone cares). I’m not usually the biggest fan of Mozart, but I find that I like his work infinitely better live, and this was definitely an excellent rendition. The precision of the orchestra was amazing, and the sections truly sounded like one instrument at times.

Following that several of the players (including the guest conductor) played a Mendelssohn Octet. It’s always fascinating to see really great players peform chamber music – you can literally see the performers communicating with each other. At one point the young second violinist looked over at the (old) conductor/first violinist and just smilled, as if to say that he was just really excited to play with such an great experienced musician. The old violinist, for his part, kept looking at his music with a sort of quizzical look on his face (He looked sort of like a turtle) while playing magnificently. It was awesome.

After an intermission, Sarah Chang came out and played the Dvorak Violion Concerto (in A Minor). To say that it was impressive would be something of an understatement. She obviously has an incredible technical mastery of the violin, and she knows it, so she plays with the sort of confidence that you only really see in virtuosos. And it worked, I don’t think she missed a note, and the audience was riveted the entire time.

So anyway, it was an amazing concert, and I’m really glad I got to go. Unfortunately Northfield doesn’t exactly draw a lot of world class performances, but this was definitely one of them.

Summer Classes

Math, Personal

I just registered for Differential Equations and Contemporary Moral Problems at UNO over the summer. Not exactly the most thrilling plans, but it should keep me busy after I get back from WWDC. Nothing like a little math in the morning to spice up the summer. Or something.