Cliff Pickover

Ask me anything. I will be happy to answer some of your questions, and will try to reply to a portion of your questions below in the coming days.

Mathematics and AI.

Long before modern equations, the Sanskrit word for Mathematics (Gaṇita) and the name Ganesha share the same root: gaṇa (to count, group, or enumerate). Ganesha is literally the ‘Lord of the Numbered’: the principle of classification that turns the infinite into the measurable. That’s why ancient Indian mathematical and astronomical texts traditionally open with an invocation to him.

Mathematics. Reality Shatter. This meme, circulating widely on the Web, may appeal to advanced mathematicians. Sources: bit.ly/44ShzaI, tinyurl.com/2b9bran7

Before satellites, GPS, or even a complete picture of the globe -- this is how one of history's greatest minds mapped the earth. World map according to ideas by Posidonius (150-130 B.C.), drawn in 17th century. I believe that this map expands on the early Greek vision of the world, including discoveries of Alexander the Great. Source: allthatsinteresting.com/anci…

"There is no law except the law that there is no law." — John Wheeler Quoted in James Gleick, Genius: the Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1993), 93. Image: tinyurl.com/yhzchwet

Today’s Trending News: Democrats suggested requiring AI companies to get federal permission before training models, with violations punishable by up to 20 years in prison. → “Is 20 years a reasonable penalty for training without permission?”

ELON MUSK offers you a FREE home a mile away from his AI Data Center built to generate no noise. You’ll pay zero property taxes and receive a tax-free $150K/year bonus. Red Button = I would not accept. Green Button = I would accept

→ If YOU could step into any painting, using Fable 5.2, which would you CHOOSE? Below, we step into Van Gogh's Starry Night.

Physicist Erwin Schrödinger found in the ancient Upanishads a framework for the strangest truth of quantum mechanics: that at the deepest level, the observer and the observed are not separate. Schrödinger spent decades reading the Upanishads, and was deeply influenced by the Upanishads through the lens of Advaita Vedānta (non-dualism).

Welcome to mathematics. Golden ratio. Approximation for e and pi.

Today's News: The Bloomington Common Council unanimously approved Ordinance 2026-29 banning the distribution, deployment, and activation of Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) within city limits. • What is Banned: Systems or entities capable of recursively self-improving and significantly outperforming all humans across all cognitive tasks without continuous human oversight. Standard AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude remain permitted. • Remote Access Rule: The ban applies to browser sessions, APIs, or devices accessed within Bloomington, even if the underlying computer servers are located outside Indiana. Source: bloomingtonian.com/2026/11/1…

This is a mathematics joke, circulating widely on the Web. Source: tinyurl.com/ysa72s38

Would you be willing to live in a home a mile from an AI Data Center if the center was built to generate no noise? The house you live in would be free, and you would be paid $100K a year.

Glimpse the past. World Map according to Anaximander (610-546 BC). A portrait of human curiosity at its limits. Three continents. A ring of ocean. Infinite questions.” tinyurl.com/ndcsgot

Long before Newton and Leibniz, 14th-century mathematician Madhava of Sangamagrama and the Kerala School of mathematics discovered infinite series for sine, cosine, and pi. In Hindu tradition, astronomy and math fall under Jyotisha, one of the six Vedangas. Madhava and his successors were Hindu scholars trained within the traditional Gurukula system. Math treatises of the era, such as the Yuktibhāṣā or Tantrasangraha, often opened with invocations to Hindu deities (such as Ganesha or Vishnu). In Indian intellectual tradition, uncovering the geometric and astronomical order of the cosmos was viewed as an act of understanding the divine structure of creation.

Cyclops Number: a nonnegative integer whose decimal expansion has an odd number of digits and exactly one 0 in the central position. 12222333333344405555666778889999 is the smallest Cyclops Number whose digits can be rearranged to give the first digits of π. It's also a prime number. Discovered by G. L. Honaker, Jr., used with permission, t5k.org/curios/page.php?numb…

Mathematics. Any person causing this tweet to be retweeted a prime number of times is worthy of adoration -- and will also cause us to experience a moment of intense pleasure at the instant their retweet takes place.

Today's news: Memphis Mayor Paul Young said that data centers in the city (led by SpaceXAI) generated $54 million in combined city and county tax revenue this year. (Young addressed a proposed ordinance that could pause data center development.) Source: localmemphis.com/article/new…

An image that reminds me of mathematics and our quest to understand the universe. Reminiscent of Costa's Minimal Surface.