New Newsletter From Michael Harris

 Mathematician Michael Harris, author of "Mathematics Without Apologies," announces a new newsletter to concern itself with AI and the mechanization of mathematics:

https://mathematicswithoutapologies.wordpress.com/2021/07/21/announcing-a-new-newsletter-on-mechanizing-mathematics/

Objectivity...

From a recent Michael Harris essay:

“The ideology of mathematical certainty and objectivity is our most potent weapon; we should not allow it to be used to undermine democracy. With regard to mathematical modeling, we should constantly remind anyone who is willing to listen that a model is not objective or scientific just because it is mathematical.”

Michael Harris Asks "Do Mathematicians Have Responsibilities?"

H/T to Peter Woit for pointing out this provocative piece from Michael Harris (author of "Mathematics Without Apologies") on Reuben Hersh, politics, Embodied AI, and mathematics: 

http://www.math.columbia.edu/~harris/otherarticles_files/Responsibilities.pdf

Infer THIS!

A fair amount to chew on in this entry from Michael Harris, focusing on the quirky (Harris says, "eclectic") online journal Inference (current issue includes an interesting Gregory Chaitin piece, as well as the set/category theoretical piece Harris concentrates on):

https://mathematicswithoutapologies.wordpress.com/2016/02/14/intelligent-design-via-higher-categories/

 ...though, if you're philosophy-phobic, perhaps best to avoid :-[
(Harris also mentions the loose theory some have that controversial writer David Berlinski is behind, or at least associated with, the journal, whose editors/progenitors go unnamed.)

A Couple From Today

Couple of posts that appeared too late to make it into my MathTango weekly wrap-up:

a)  If The Cantor Set doesn't already blow your mind enough, don't despair, 'cuz Evelyn Lamb is here to blow your mind with the "fat Cantor Set":
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/2015/04/30/a-few-of-my-favorite-spaces-fat-cantor-sets/

b)  and in some more deep stuff, Michael Harris has an ongoing discussion of homotopy theory:
https://mathematicswithoutapologies.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/pantheism-and-homotopy-theory-part-3/