KENNEDAM%WWPS@dupont.com (Tony Kennedy) (03/12/90)
I thought that this would be of interest to the Amiga community... ...Tony There are 2 parts to this....The Pattern Book and the Survey. PLease don't send your response to me. Send it to Cliff Pickover at IBM. =========================================================================== THE PATTERN BOOK - CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS You are hereby cordially invited to submit 2-page manu- scripts to a book entitled The Pattern Book: Recipes for Beauty, edited by C. A. Pickover. The book will contain se- veral hundred aesthetically interesting patterns, some of which are generated by computer. For each pattern in the book, there will be 2 pages: a one-page description fol- lowed by a page containing a figure or figures illustrating the pattern. Although many patterns will be computer generated, the pat- terns need not be created on a computer. Typical entries may include tiling patterns, various symmetrical designs, synthesized or real patterns in nature, other biological and botanical shapes, recursive or chaotic shapes, various mathematically-derived forms, and hand-drawn artistic shapes. The range of topics is limitless. For example, pattern number 1010 is titled: The Evolution of the Solar and Planetary Vortices, from Gabriel Daniel's A Voyage to the World of Cartesius (1694). The book will exist, and may be requested from me, in photo- copy form until several hundred patterns are contributed, and the book published. The contributed patterns will be reviewed, and the chances of acceptance of your pattern will be increased significantly if your text is well written, and if your pattern is rendered in a high-quality form, is novel, and is attractive. Your name, address, and explanatory text will appear with each pattern, and a panel of distinguished judges will se- lect the ten best patterns in terms of of novelty and aes- thetic appeal. These patterns will receive special recognition in the book. Our board of judges includes: Ian Stewart, European editor of The Mathematical Intelligencer, Istvan Hargittai, editor of Symmetry, A. K. Dewdney, author of The Touring Omnibus, Roger Malina, editor of Leonardo, Ivars Peterson, Science News, Chris Langton, editor of the book Artificial Life, Peter Sorenson, Computer Graphics Edi- tor of Special Effects Magazine, and Alan Mackay, editor of Speculations in Science and Technology. I would hope to be able to offer all contributors a payment from the publisher, but this would have to be finalized when a publisher is se- lected. The format for your submissions should be very carefully ad- hered to, and you should request an "Instructions for Au- thors" guide. If your pattern is accepted, you will receive a pattern identification number for your pattern, and you may request from me a photocopy version of all the accepted patterns. I look forward to hearing from you. Clifford A. Pickover, Ph.D. The Pattern Book IBM T. J. Watson Research Center Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 USA Cliff at YKTVMV or Cliff at IBM.COM ============================================================================ The following survey may be of interest to readers of this forum who are interested in computational mathematics and graphics. Thanks, Cliff Pickover SURVEY QUESTIONS - SEND OPINIONS TO CLIFF at YKTVMV or CLIFF at IBM.COM ** DO NOT APPEND YOUR ANSWERS IN THIS FORUM. ** I WILL MAKE OPINIONS AVAILABLE AFTER THEY ARE COMPILED AND PROCESSED. It's possible that a small subset of your answers may end up in an article. Please send your name, location, job title, qualifications, along with your opinion. QUESTION 1: If there existed a beer-can sized computer with infinite memory and infinite speed, what would be the scientific and sociological impact of such a machine. Would there be tremendous scientific gains within a year of distributing this computer, or would science plod along at its current rate? What fields would benefit? How would mankind change? In formulating your opinion, please consider the following: the computer is given to every individual who requests it, free of charge. The computer is programmed in a standard language such as Fortran or C. Standard peripherals can be attached. I/O speeds are infinite. Of course, peripherals such as printers and displays and networks work at standard rates. No special graphics hardware comes with the machine. QUESTION 2: Current graphics supercomputers can render between about 30,000 triangles per second and 150,000 triangles per second. The hardware computes shading and hidden surfaces for these triangular facets at this speed. Question: If there existed a beer-can sized graphics supercomputer which could render trillions and trillions of triangles per second, what would be the scientific and sociological impact of such a machine. Would there be tremendous scientific gains within a year of distributing this computer, or would science plod along at its current rate? What fields would benefit? How would mankind change? In formulating your opinion, please consider the following: the graphics supercomputer is given to every individual who requests it, free of charge. The computer is programmed in a standard language such as Fortran or C, and with standard graphics languages such as PHIGS, XPEX, etc. Standard peripherals can be attached. I/O speeds are infinite. The display which the beer can drives is about 25 inches with resolution and color capability at the limit of human visual perception. CPU speeds are at the cutting edge of what is available today. ** DO NOT APPEND YOUR ANSWERS IN THIS FORUM. **