Formal proof is useless Updated 2025-07-16
The only cases where formal proof of theorems seem to have had actual mathematical value is for theorems that require checking a very large number of case, so much so that no human can be fully certain that no mistakes were made. Some examples:
Four Gentlemen Updated 2025-07-16
Figure 1.
Plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum Chinese painting by Zheng Xie
. Source. This is an example of bird-and-flower painting, of which the Four Gentlemen are a common theme. TODO date.
Freeman Dyson Updated 2025-09-09
Ciro Santilli's admiration for Dyson goes beyond his "unify all the things approach", which Ciro loves, but also extends to the way he talks and the things he says. Dyson is one of Ciro's favorite physicist.
Besides this, he was also very idealistic compassionate, and supported a peaceful resolution until World War II with United Kingdom was basically inevitable. Note that this was a strategic mistake.
Dyson is "hawk nosed" as mentioned in Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics by James Gleick (1994) chapter "Dyson". But he wasn't when he was young, see e.g. i2.wp.com/www.brainpickings.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/freemandyson_child-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1064&ssl=1 It seems that his nose just never stopped growing after puberty.
He also has some fun stories, like him practicing night climbing while at Cambridge University, and having walked from Cambridge to London (~86km!) in a day with his wheelchair bound friend.
Ciro Santilli feels that the label child prodigy applies even more so to him than to Feynman and Julian Schwinger.
Freely licensed Bibles Updated 2025-07-16
With Falun Gong it's even more fun: the words of God Himself are will be copyrighted for a while after Li Hongzhi dies!!!
Front-end web framework Updated 2025-07-16
You need those because it is hard to do the following:
This is hard to do notably because when the update happens, several things might need to change on the webpage at the same time.
Notably, new elements might need to be added to the webpage, which in turn means that new bindings such as button clicks have to be added to those, in a way that keeps the page working.
The only way to do this basically is to have a functional dependency graph that keeps everything in the page in working state as updates come.
Fusion power Updated 2025-07-16
Video 1.
Why Private Billions Are Flowing Into Fusion by Bloomberg (2022)
Source.
It is interesting that there are several different approaches to the problem. This feels a bit like quantum computing's development at the same time, increases hope that at least one will work.
Fullerene Updated 2025-07-16
Video 1.
Buckyballs (C60) by Periodic Videos (2010)
Source. Actually shows them in a lab!
Functional function Updated 2025-07-16
This is about functions that take functions as input or output.
Fundação Estudar Updated 2025-07-16
Video 1.
What I learned in Harvard part 1 by Jorge Paulo Lemann (2012)
Source. Portuguese talk about his experiences. A bit bably, but has a few good comments:
  • You don't learn the Harvard experience, you absorb it.
  • Being amongst excellent people makes you learn what excelent people are like, just like only by tasting many different types of wine can you know what good wine is like.
    This one does have bias danger though. But detecting greatness, is as type of bias arguably.
Main section: fusion power.
This is a long haul. But we have to give it a shot.
Gallium arsenide Updated 2025-07-16
This is apparently the most important III-V semiconductor, it seems to actually have some applications, see also: gallium arsenide vs silicon.
Gallium arsenide vs silicon Updated 2025-07-16
The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray by Charles J. Murray (1997) page 4 mentions:
Cray wanted his new machine to employ circuits made from a material called gallium arsenide. Gallium arsenide had achieved limited success, particularly in satellite communications and military electronics. But no one had succeeded with it in anything so complicated as a computer. In the computer industry, engineers had developed a saying: "Gallium arsenide is the technology of the future," they would say. "And it always will be."

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