Matt Macauley

Associate Professor (Clemson) | AIMS Lecturer (South Africa) | Author: "Visual Algebra" (forthcoming) | YouTuber | First Gen | Homesteader | Dad to Ida & Felix

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

🚨🚨 #MathTwitter Announcement! 🚨🚨

As I'm going through and finalizing chapters in my #VisualAlgebra book, I'm recording a new set of YouTube videos in tandem. This will be more than twice as long as my existing #VisualGroupTheory playlist, with MUCH more content.

1/3 👇

[Valerio Capraro @ValerioCapraro]

This is honestly shocking.

Three months ago, Hong Wang was awarded the Fields Medal for resolving the Kakeya conjecture in three dimensions.

Today, OpenAI released a proposed proof of the conjecture in ALL dimensions.

And that’s not all. It also announced a proposed existence proof for quantum chromodynamics and a proposed refutation of the Exponential Time Hypothesis.

Experts say that, if confirmed, these would be Nobel prize and Turing award level discoveries respectively.

A journalist just asked me: “What remains for humans to do?”

I think it’s becoming increasingly clear that more and more problem solving will be automated.

But humans will remain crucial in determining the direction of discovery. Deciding which problems are worth solving.

Because the value of a discovery depends on our needs, our priorities and the kind of world we want to build.

There will be a shift from problem solving to problem setting.

I also think there will be huge individual differences.

People with strong critical thinking skills, creativity and imagination will be supercharged by AI.

People without those skills risk surrendering to it.

I’m particularly concerned for children, who may never develop these skills.

I think epistemic literacy - how to distinguish information from knowledge - is the single most important skill we should be teaching.

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

Really looking forward to watching this on YouTube. If you haven’t already, please go watch Grant’s video about AI, titled “There’s never been a better time to go into math.”

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

Thank you to Grant Sanderson @3blue1brown for having me on his podcast – and I hope you enjoy our open-hearted, tentative, exploratory conversation about math in the age of AI. We tried out a lot of ideas on each other. https://t.co/kDTQWcvp6l

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@LongFormMath I saw a post about this saying that they also identified 100 substantive fixes to the literature.

So there were mistakes, but not the kind to invalidate the result. That seems much more plausible.

[Le Yang @leyang25]

@VisualAlgebra A simple one! Let me know what you think!

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@leyang25 This is great! A few comments: I take r to be the CCW rotation b/c of complex number multiplication.

Narration would be nice. Viewers can either read the captions or watch the graphics, but not so much of both.

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

💥 Some personal news 💥

#VisualAlgebra is finally DONE! I just sent off an 820-page pdf to the editor. Almost exactly 7 years after I started. The zip file that contains the 100+ plain text LaTeX files and nothing else is a whopping 5.4 MB.

Now onward to Volume 2!

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@jantonyq @RadioFreeTom That was as empty of a threat in 2024 as the “I’ll lock her up” promise in 2016. (Fauci, on the other hand, was legitimately at risk.)

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@CaptainJoey63 @lateforapex Nah, they’re in for a surprise attack there. Defense won’t hold.

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@djsanderson1970 @3blue1brown @ONagel33303 I’ll say it now. They won’t get close. Ever.

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@MAGA_Blondie Well that explains the attendance in my class this afternoon. 🤦‍♂️

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@joel_c_miller Thanks Joel! I just submitted what I think is a nearly finalized draft, but I’ve heard that it takes up to a year from that point. So maybe later 2027, if there aren’t any surprises?

I’m new to this. Not really sure how it all works.

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@leyang25 Great! Feel free to reach out (by email) if you have any questions.

Btw, I was also a bioinformatics postdoc once. :-)

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@leyang25 Most of the 600+ images in the entire book are on my slides here:

https://t.co/P2eLw2Lirb

I do need to update them, though, as there are some new ones that I haven’t incorporated, and some others that I need to fix.

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@leyang25 I don’t know how one would do that, but I’m open to ideas from anyone who knows more about it than I do!

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@eugene_ndiaye It still has to go through the formal review and copy editing process, and those take a while. So maybe sometime in late 2027, assuming no issues?

Not really sure. I’m brand new to all of this!

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@introsp3ctor @wallpuncher_ I *do* want materials to be widely accessible, so while I can’t post the pdf for copyright purposes, I have most of the 600+ visuals across nearly 100 pages of slides on my website. I also have a bunch of YouTube videos as well. Great for self-study!

https://t.co/P2eLw2Lirb

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@tags7453 @TheRickWilson @McConaughey Driving voter turnout among independent voters, which are majorly skewing D this year will likely help Talarico and other candidates more than just an endorsement. I’m sure it was calculated.

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@lamethemvp @vladimir_vg @prof_g I think the general timeline from final-ish draft submission to publication is under a year. So I’d guess late 2027?? But I’m new to all of this, so I could be very wrong.

[Matt Macauley @VisualAlgebra]

@mauricet60 @hawkblogger Oh cool, please invite her on the show, @hawkblogger! She seems to still be in college studying statistics. I bet she’d accept and it could be mutually beneficial.