Back to AtD Zeta functions

[Mark Kohut]

i love the entropy aphorism and will steal it for use in conversation, just sayin'..it is a terrif aphorism
because it yokes together the fictional and a real perspective. Only a certain kind of category mistake
could allow such Icelandic-Spar meanings to the word "present". 
 
Entropy isn't a trope present in every work; entropy exists in our reading as in everything in time. 
And this is not even to throw out Amis's novel written against the flow of time, not Roth's about 
an affair told backwards in time. 
 
But I like the fun of it and yes to Things Fall Apart and the poem it came in on, and to some others 
I could name. 
 

From: Prashant Kumar <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> 
Cc: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 12:09 PM
Subject: Re: Back to AtD Zeta functions


I like to say that entropy is a trope present in every work of fiction (especially Things Fall Apart, amirite? Anyone? Anyone? Ok fine...) insofar as everything is subject to the thermodynamic arrow of time. (over a long enough timescale)  


On Monday, 16 July 2012, Mark Kohut wrote:

The Annie Liebowitz reminder was wonderfully ironic about a solid woman thinker/writer who was NOT as ironic as TRP, imho.
> 
>And, short Wittgenstein answer is we need a longer answer and time but that TRP might use the ideas creatively, metaphorically, as
>he does the concepts of entropy and other concepts is still possible. 
>
>
>From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org 
>Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 6:57 AM
>Subject: Re: Back to AtD Zeta functions
>
>
>On 7/16/2012 12:08 AM, Prashant Kumar wrote:
>
>So actually the imaginary numbers used in representing voltage don't represent real or measurable quantities. It's just a mathematical convenience. The salient point is this: we can't directly measure anything with an i. 
>>
>>
>>
>>Strangely, physical entities with imaginary components do exist, such as the wavefunction of a quantum mechanical system. There was a result in Nature recently that proved that the wavefunction is not just a statement of knowledge, it represents more than just probabilities. If anyone is interested I can go into this, but the short answer is Witt was wrong
>Thanks, Prashant.  I withdraw my voltage example.
>
>Luddy wrong too.  I'm in such good company.
>
>P
>
>
>>
>>On 16 July 2012 11:01, Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>As someone who suffers from an inability to properly understand maths I thank you, 'twas certainly helpful.
>>>
>>>It is hard for me to imagine who any of this has to do with Annie Leibovitz... I take it some folks have a hard time figuring out what is just White Noise in Pynchon...? 
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 8:25 AM, Prashant Kumar <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>First we're gonna need complex numbers, made of a real part (normal numbers) plus an imaginary part. Imaginary numbers are defined by multiples of i=squareroot(-1). Imagine a 2D graph, the vertical axis marked with multiples of i and the horizontal axis with real numbers. So on this 2D graph we can define a complex number as a point. Call such a point s = \sigma + \rho, \sigma and \rho being real and imaginary numbers resp.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Since it takes real and imaginary inputs, and we plot the output in the third dimension, the Riemann Zeta function can be visualised as a surface sitting above the complex number graph; that's what you saw, Mark (see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function for the same thing with magnitude represented as colour).  If I have a RZ function, writing R as a function of s as R(s), the zeroes are the values of s for which R(s)=0.  The Riemann Hypothesis (unproven) states that the zeroes of the RZ function have real part 1/2. Formally, R(1/2 + \rho) = 0. This gives you a line on the surface of the RZ function (known as the critical line) along which the zeroes are hypothesised to lie. That wasn't too bad, right?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Verifying this hypothesis is notoriously hard.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>On 15 July 2012 21:27, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>"Except that this one's horizontal and drawn on a grid of latitude and longitude,
>>>>>instead of rel vs imaginary values---where Riemann said that all the zeroes of the
>>>>>Beta function will be found."
>>>>> 
>>>>>p. 937 Don't know enough math to have a feel for Zeta functions but Wolfram's
>>>>>maths guide online shows Beta functions kinda graphed in three dimensions,
>>>>>with raised sections, waves, folds etc....
>>>>> 
>>>>>And all I can associate at the moment are the raised maps, showing land formations,
>>>>>and the phrase
>>>>> 
>>>>>History is a step-function.
>>>>> 
>>>>>Anyone, anyone? Bueller? 
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20120716/e738d534/attachment.html>