https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/three-mathematicians-we-lost-in-2020 Skip to main content The New Yorker * Newsletter To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories . Close Alert Sign In Search * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On Open Navigation Menu To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Close Alert The New Yorker Annals of Inquiry Three Mathematicians We Lost in 2020 John Conway, Ronald Graham, and Freeman Dyson all explored the world with their minds. By Dan Rockmore December 31, 2020 * * * * * Save this story for later. Freeman Dyson. Freeman Dyson was a translator: he turned physics into math, and those subjects into English for the general public.Photograph from Tania / Contrasto / Redux * * * * * Save this story for later. Life in the real world is complicated. It's much simpler on the computer. As the Game of Life begins, the screen is filled with a vast latticework of squares, only a few of them filled in. The magic is in the algorithms, which determine, on the basis of the current pattern, what will happen next. As time ticks on, whether any given square will be vacant or occupied, dead or alive, depends on its present state, as well as the states of its nearest neighbors, and possibly of their neighbors, and of their neighbors twice or three times removed. Change the first pattern, rewrite, delete, or add an algorithmic rule, and the pattern may grow unbounded and crenellated or recede to a tiny, moving archipelago, or evolve only to cycle back to its initial configuration, so that it can start over again. The wheel spins on. The "moral" that excited everyone when this computer game was invented, in 1970, was that simplicity could beget complexity. It provided users with a computational version of the molecular primordial soup, with its ramifications intact but time collapsed. These days, of course, it's hard not to see our real lives in the game's simple, abstract terms. Variations on Life are used to model epidemics like the one we're experiencing. The coronavirus is among the simplest life forms, living only to reproduce, occupying each host only to find the next, through some form of basic contact transmission. We are the squares, some of us occupied and some vacant, all of us doing what we can to avoid being a nearest, or even second-nearest, neighbor. Dan Rockmore is the associate dean for the sciences and the director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Sciences at Dartmouth College. His most recent book is an edited volume, "What are the Arts and Sciences? A Guide for the Curious." More:MathematicsObituariesMathematiciansPhysics The New Yorker Recommends What our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week. Enter your e-mail address [ ] Sign up Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Read More Freeman Dyson Annals of Technology Freeman Dyson's Letters Offer Another Glimpse of Genius Through his correspondence, the renowned physicist revealed himself as a different sort of thinker--casually wise, surprisingly earnest, and always attuned to the multiple layers of our human existence. By David Kaiser The Cicadas Love Affair With Prime Numbers Annals of Technology The Cicada's Love Affair With Prime Numbers By Patrick Di Justo The Man Who Invented More Than Eight Hundred Iconic Toys Video The Man Who Invented More Than Eight Hundred Iconic Toys Eddy Goldfarb, who is ninety-eight, created such classics as the bubble gun, chattering teeth, and Kerplunk! Here's how he did it. The New Yorker Sections * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On More * Customer Care * Shop The New Yorker * Buy Covers and Cartoons * Conde Nast Store * Digital Access * Newsletters * Jigsaw Puzzle * RSS * Site Map * About * Careers * Contact * FAQ * Media Kit * Press * Accessibility Help * Conde Nast Spotlight (c) 2021 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Conde Nast. Ad Choices * * * * *