Ants are the graph theory of biology.
-
It's still math. There are still right answers. Especially for the combinatorics problems you do as you build up to some of the theorems.
It's just a lot of theorems are easy to state, sound reasonable but hard or unproven.
@futurebird@sauropods.win @photovotary@beige.party some like 4-color theorem has a very unsatisfyingly inelegant proof -
* Anyone can understand some of the big questions in graph theory
* People think graph theory is "great for kids" for some reason (yeah if you want them to be obsessed with unproved theorems for their whole life)
* It's very easy to get very deep in graph theory and VERY lost. Easy to state problems with no solutions
* You just know it's all CONNECTED and it's going to drive you nuts forever@futurebird graph theory is extremely useful but only after you have linear algebra
-
* Anyone can understand some of the big questions in graph theory
* People think graph theory is "great for kids" for some reason (yeah if you want them to be obsessed with unproved theorems for their whole life)
* It's very easy to get very deep in graph theory and VERY lost. Easy to state problems with no solutions
* You just know it's all CONNECTED and it's going to drive you nuts forever@futurebird I saw a video recently talking about how there is only one infinite random graph and had my mind blown, I can see it driving people mad
-
F myrmepropagandist shared this topic
-
@futurebird I saw a video recently talking about how there is only one infinite random graph and had my mind blown, I can see it driving people mad
@orman @futurebird hey i saw that video too
-
@futurebird graph theory is extremely useful but only after you have linear algebra
@futurebird graph theory is a tool for turning any problem into a linear algebra problem, or for getting visual intuition for unintuitive linear algebra problems
-
@futurebird I saw a video recently talking about how there is only one infinite random graph and had my mind blown, I can see it driving people mad
@orman @futurebird *knowing I may regret this, and yet* Imma need that link
-
@orman @futurebird *knowing I may regret this, and yet* Imma need that link
I will add it to #fediverseTV
-
I will add it to #fediverseTV
-
The "math most likely to make you mad" is continuum theory. But the math that will most reliably lead to a being fixated on it?
Graph Theory.
@futurebird I learned a tiny bit of queueing theory and that’s the one I can’t get out of my head. I see it everywhere, of course. Traffic. The grocery store. The airport. Restaurants. I know enough to say “I bet there’s some queuing theory principle that explains this” but not enough to know more than that.
-
Ants are the graph theory of biology.
@futurebird for a quarter of a century I thought cladistics was the graph theory of biology!
