David Bindel

In early summer of this year, one of the applied math PhD students asked whether we could have a panel on AI and mathematics in the fall colloquium series. I said yes, and we started planning it on earnest about a month ago.

The news is awash with certainty borrowed from sources I don't trust. Experts make mistakes. Zealots are sure they never do. What about when somebody tries to borrow certainty from an AI question? Democratized expertise? If nobody involved knows what they know, where is the expertise?

In early summer of this year, one of the applied math PhD students asked whether we could have a panel on AI and mathematics in the fall colloquium series. I said yes, and we started planning it on earnest about a month ago.

I have some certainty of many things that I have not directly worked on. I go up elevators, certain they will not fall to the ground. I ride vehicles, certain they will not burst into flames. That certainty is borrowed; I believe the engineers who worked on the design knew their stuff.

In early summer of this year, one of the applied math PhD students asked whether we could have a panel on AI and mathematics in the fall colloquium series. I said yes, and we started planning it on earnest about a month ago.

My colleagues on the panel all expressed some amount of uncertainty. I would have expected nothing less. I worry much more when I read takes in which people are totally certain what will happen next.

In early summer of this year, one of the applied math PhD students asked whether we could have a panel on AI and mathematics in the fall colloquium series. I said yes, and we started planning it on earnest about a month ago.

That panel discussion took place today. Needless to say, it was standing room only. We had people online, and we brought extra chairs into the room.

The SF fountain pen show was this weekend, and I have been admiring from afar on Reddit. And sometimes on Mastodon. And somehow on Bluesky, I am mostly finding people who mentioned a fountain pen once and now want to express their anger about politics.

I get that many things are bad right now. That is why I want the distraction of people talking about fountain pens.

Students returning, and the woodchucks are freaking out. I saw two of them practically sprinting across the path on my way in.

I spent much of today and yesterday working on a draft of something that I'm excited about. There are arguably more urgent things on my list -- overdue reviews, urgent admin tasks, classes that start in two weeks. But I'm struggling with some things, and research can be soothing.

I will probably need to switch gears tomorrow and not work on this paper for a bit. But I'm squirreling away the feelings of delight over the whole business.

I spent much of today and yesterday working on a draft of something that I'm excited about. There are arguably more urgent things on my list -- overdue reviews, urgent admin tasks, classes that start in two weeks. But I'm struggling with some things, and research can be soothing.

Without too much detail, part of the reason that I'm so excited about this thing is because it seems obvious once you put the pieces together. And the pieces are not totally new! A fair fraction of the bibliography involves papers that are older than I am.

Pete Stewart passed away this week at the age of 85. He was a mentor when I was an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, and somebody I looked forward to seeing at conferences for a long time after.