Pi and Lost

Hey guys I'm back.

I had another random set of thoughts about Pi. I don't know how many people watch Lost, but there's some parallel ideas to some of the stuff in Pi. In Lost, there are these numbers that are kind of around throughout the show and no one knows what they mean. The numbers pop up in basically all aspects of the show and in really random places. It kind of touches on the same idea as max looking for the number 216, and finding it because he expects to find it. In the show, the numbers show up in so many places it would be impossible to really analyze every occurrence of them. In addition, since numbers can just show up at random, like as a character's jersey number or something, you can never really know if it's a legitimate connection to the meaning of the numbers. I thought this was similar to Max's teacher joking that it could take him 216 steps to get to his apartment. You can't tell which instances of the pattern are meaningful.

The Pattern of Patterns

Since we’ve now all been conditioned to look for patterns lately, I feel it is only fair to point out some of the recurring themes in A Beautiful Mind that we’ve discussed in class. First off there is obvious notion that the protagonist, John Nash is looking for, what else, a pattern in governing dynamics, though I have no idea what governing dynamics is. If anyone could briefly explain this to me, I would be grateful and it would also help boost your comment total.

Another recurring pattern is of the (social) outcast who over comes obstacles to achieve success. Obviously this isn’t restricted to ABM. I can think of a few off the time off of my head like Spider-Man or virtually any rags to riches to story. Anyhow, in ABM Nash overcomes falling behind his peers and ends up winning a prestigious award then later seems to overcome schizophrenia to live a normal life. I’ve never seen this movie before nor heard much about John Nash so I don’t know how much is truth and how much is Hollywood. Oh, there’s also the not so subtle “love conquers all” schema in the movie that seems to play itself out in many Hollywood tales.

So, after viewing Pi and now this first portion of ABM it’s hard to deny that there are definitely recurring patterns in life. Perhaps Max was right in believing that everything in the universe has some sort of pattern. Perhaps we are just unable to figure out what those patterns are yet.

Patterns

Hey everyone. I'm not sure what this post will be about yet, but I guess I'll get started by talking about Pi.

The first part of Pi was definitely well done. Aronofsky really has a talent for bringing all the artistic aspects of a film together. In that way it really reminded me of Requiem for a Dream (which everyone should watch at least once because it's insane).

The discussion of patterns was also very intriguing. It kind of brings up the distinction between the way people see patterns and the way a computer does. The human brain is extremely good at recognizing patterns (I mean this very generally, like recognizing a tree in a photograph), but it's interesting to think about which ones are real and which are misinterpretations. It's tricky because we can think independently about the information we're given to draw conclusions that aren't necessarily based on anything concrete. We can convince ourselves of things. On the other hand, a computer can only recognize a pattern that it's already been told exactly how to recognize. So it's very difficult for a computer to pick out a tree in a photograph. However, it's also harder for it to get sidetracked since it can't "convince itself" that a certain pattern that it hasn't been told about is important, like the number 216.

Just a random musing

Faith in Numbers

In both Pi and We we have two protagonists who live their lives based on the logic and rationality of numbers. Yet in the both stories the characters both have faith in some unquantifiable quality that governs the world (and the universe).

In We, D-503 has unquestionable faith in the benevolent Benefactor and the One State. From D-503’s writings we get the sense that the Benefactor is the epitome of logic and rationality but in all realistic probability this probably not the case. However, D-503 and the rest of the citizens of the One State seems too blind to see it.

In Pi, Max has faith in patterns. Everything in the universe has some pattern. In his blind faith in his belief he discounts ideas of any sort of spontaneity or randomness. How can someone with such a high ability to rationalize things believe that there are no anamolies in existence? On the other hand, perhaps he is right.

To me it seems that both concepts lead to the idea of whether or not people have free will or not, a universal question that no one seems to have the answer to. If life is We and everything is ran by a system and order then people no longer become people but simply parts of a machine. Machine parts have no choice in their functions. If life is Pi then people have no free will but are simply enacting the patterns upon patterns set in motion at the beginning of time. Every person born, grow, wilt, die, born, grow, wilt, die – forever until the pattern ends.

Making Sense of Insanity

There is a fine line between finding patterns done by educated professionals and finding patterns done by crazy people. Educated professionals such as professors work hard for years studying particular subjects especially in the field of mathematics trying to come up with a solution to a problem. This is not a form of craziness because professors have some direction in their research and they are trained and educated professionals. They are qualified, older, and respected individuals. They may seem eccentric and crazy but are not that way because the solutions they are looking to provide will solve numerous real world problems. When intelligence is combined with strong passion then it doesn’t mean that someone is crazy; they are passionate.

On the other hand, if someone with no direction were trying to make sense of something totally random, then that would seem crazy to me. Trying to understand the meaning of life, making sense of why certain colors are used around us, why certain things are the way they are, all seem crazy to me.

P Pa Pat Patt Patte Patter Pattern Patterns

Everything in the physical world has a pattern or is a part of a pattern. This is because the laws of physics places limits on the way things can act. For example, if I throw a ball in the air, it only has one option. It must fall. And, it does fall. Now a pattern is discovered (every thing that goes up, must come down). Patterns like this underlie everything in nature. There is a pattern to the way atoms bond together. There is a pattern to the way birds migrate.

One might say that this is not always true. One might bring up quantum physics. They might say that some things are impossible to have certainty about. A lot of things can only be gotten at by probability and statistics. But both probability and statistics are built on the assumption that things run in patterns. A random variable has no meaning if there is not a pattern in its nature. Look at the binomial count random variable when flipping a coin (# of heads). If we flip it 1000 times, we can expect to get nearly 500 heads. Increasing the number of flips will make the proportion of heads grow closer and closer to .5. Is this not a pattern? It is known as the law of large numbers. Ask the owner of a casino if he believes there is a pattern to the random variables that govern the gambling games that are played in the casino. Casinos wouldn't exist if patterns didn't exist in the realm of probability.