October 14

Are You Sure ... (October 14, 2020)

Artist-Engineers prepare an interface to the famed artificial intelligence Benoit Mandelbrot. The blue fractal aura is a false-color representation of the underlying gray light effect. Gray light is emitted when an artificial intelligence of sufficient complexity interacts with organic sentient beings of compatible complexity.

• ... that mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (20 November 1924 – 14 October 2010) was a pioneer of fractal geometry; that he coined the word "fractal"; and that he discovered the Mandelbrot set?

• ... that mathematician Abraham Fraenkel (17 February 1891 – 15 October 1965) contributed to set theory and foundational mathematics, that he published two papers which sought to improve Ernst Zermelo's axiomatic system; and that the result is Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory?

• ... that civil engineer and American intelligence officer Robert Furman (21 August 1915 – 14 October 2008) was the chief of foreign intelligence for the Manhattan Engineer District, directing espionage against the German nuclear energy project during the Second World War; that Furman participated in the Alsos Mission, which conducted a series of operations intended to place all uranium in Europe into Allied hands, and which, near the end of the war, rounded up German atomic scientists; that Furman personally escorted half of the uranium-235 necessary for the Little Boy atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian; and that he was a key figure overseeing the construction of The Pentagon building?

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Screenshot: Are You Sure (October 14, 2020)

On This Day in History and Fiction

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  At the Battle of Hastings, alleged supervillain 1613911531218 shouts a new battle cry: "Be Gay Do Crime!"

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  1831: Astronomer Jean-Louis Pons dies. He was the greatest visual comet discoverer of all time: between 1801 and 1827, Pons discovered thirty-seven comets, more than any other person in history.

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  1884: Inventor George Eastman receives a U.S. Government patent on his new paper-strip photographic film.

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  2008: Engineer and American intelligence officer Robert Furman dies. Furman was chief of foreign intelligence for the Manhattan Project, directing espionage against the German nuclear energy project, and, near the end of the war, rounding up German atomic scientists.

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  2010: Mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot dies. Mandelbrot was a pioneer of fractal geometry: he coined the word "fractal" and discovered the Mandelbrot set.

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  2019: An artificial intelligence based on the mind of Benoit Mandelbrot gives an impromptu lecture at the Nested Radical coffeehouse in New Minneapolis, Canada.