June 21, 2006

• Go with the Flow

  The previous entry links to a document that discusses the mathematical concept of “Ricci flow (pdf).”

  Though the concept was not named for him, this seems as good a time as any to recall the virtues of St. Matteo Ricci,
  a Jesuit who died in Beijing on May 11, 1610. (The Church does
  not yet recognize him as a saint; so much the worse for the Church.)

  There was no Log24 entry on Ricci’s saint’s day, May 11, this year, but
  an entry for 4:29 PM May 10, 2006, seems relevant, since Beijing
  is 12 hours ahead of my local (Eastern US) time.

  Ricci is famous for constructing
  a “memory palace.”
  Here is my equivalent,
  from the May 10 entry:

  

  The relevance of this structure
  to memory and to Chinese culture
  is given in Dragon School and in
  Geometry of the 4x4x4 Cube.

  For some related remarks on
  the colloquial, rather than the
  mathematical, concept of flow,
  see
  Philosophy, Religion, and Science
  as well as Crystal and Dragon.

  Yesterday’s entry on the 1865
  remarks on aesthetics of
  Gerard Manley Hopkins,
  who later became a Jesuit,
  may also have some relevance.

  • 10:00 am
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