Martin Gardner RIP

[undyingking]

His Scientific American columns, which I read in collected form (Mathematical Carnival etc) in my mid-teens, really enthused me with the joy and fascination of maths and associated concepts, games and delightful trivialities, in a way that school had never managed. He wrote beautifully, clearly and rationally -- as a non-expert himself, he took the job of communication of meaning seriously, and handled it with immense skill. His tireless work contra pseudoscience is also deserving of great praise.

It was through Gardner that I learnt about hyperdimensions, Cantor's investigation of infinities, Conway's Game of Life, the art of MC Escher, the Fibonacci sequence, the tricks of lightning calculators, how to build a learning AI... and countless other topics that each expanded my mind in a new and exciting direction. In his memory, I'm going to dig those books out and read through them all again. And I really ought to get hold of The Annotated Alice.

Did you ever read Gardner, and do you have any favourite subjects he wrote about that made a particular impression on you?

Comments

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

While my reading of SA was patchy, his column was one constant and something I would turn to. And he always managed to both inform and make me think, at whatever level my maths ability was at. A rare skill indeed.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I read Gardner - he was awesome!

My dad had a Scientific American subscription for years and I used to pick them up from where they'd been left lying around and read bits. Usually, Gardner's section was the best bit.

The column I remember best was one about evolving software algorithms. Many years later, researching in the field myself, I couldn't help thinking that his writing on the subject had been a lot better than many of the research papers.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, he had a real gift for communication.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

The Annotated Alice is well-researched and very readable.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

It's been on my wish list for some years, but as no-one else has got me it I guess I now need to make the effort to do so myself ;-)

[pmcray.livejournal.com]

"Science: Good, Bad and Bogus" was a huge influence. I once saw someone walking at high speed down Cambridge Heath Road (this would probably have been early 1990). They were reading a book. As they passed me, I saw that it was "Science: Good, Bad and Bogus". Which is the kind of book that you'd expect a reading walker to be reading.

"The Annotated Alice" is well worth the effort as is "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener".

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know The Whys, I'll have to look out for that.

[pmcray.livejournal.com]

It had slipped my mind, but "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science" also made a big impact.

[jvvw.livejournal.com]

Gosh, hadn't heard that he had died.

Martin Gardner was definitely an important part of my youth and I must have about a dozen of his books upstairs. I started reading his aha books with the cartoons when I was maybe about seven or eight, and remember especially learning about things like infinity and Hilbert's hotel, and Russell's paradox via that. There was also a book of science fiction puzzles that I remember reading at quite a young age. I'm not sure I was old enough to solve any of them, but I still remember the fascination they inspired in me. When I was older, I particularly remember discovering L'Oulipo via a couple of articles that he wrote about them.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, I discovered L'Oulipo through him too; forgot about that. That sparked many an ill-fated teenage language experiment.

[jvvw.livejournal.com]

And a photo of my books of his! http://www.flickr.com/photos/julietteculver/4631954135/

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Excellent selection! I have identicals of those two Pelican ones that I'm guessing were your mother's, although mine aren't quite as well-loved-looking ;-)

[jvvw.livejournal.com]

You guess right that I've inherited them from my mother! She read them in the sixth form when applying for oxford in fact.

[why-lydia.livejournal.com]

yes, both my copies of the Annotated Alice and the Annotated Snark are well used.

I really wasn't that awrae of this "real" work though

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

If Alice and Snark count as Carroll's 'real' work (which history surely suggests they do -- his maths didn't leave the same mark), I'm sure Gardner would be happy for people to value his annotations accordingly.

[hatmandu.livejournal.com]

Another fan here, and I used to lap up the SA columns as a teenager. Got numerous MG books on the shelves, including the Annotated Alice. IIRC I've got a couple of fiction (by others) anthologies he compiled too.