Message #3124

From: Melinda Green <melinda@superliminal.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Re: Sixth solve of 3^7!
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2015 00:17:25 -0700

Great to hear from you, Jay!

For those who don’t know, Jay is as much responsible for the success of
our code as anyone. He came along at a point where Don Hatch (my
co-author) and I were stuck. The code was too much of a mess for either
of us feel good about publishing, and neither of us was willing to do
the messy job of getting it to that point. Like an angel, Jay came along
and said that he’d do it, and he did!

I agree that having solved or worked on MC4D gives you a great talking
point and street cred, I was more interested to hear what people then
say after you mention MC7D or other monsters. I find people generally
willing to talk about the 4D puzzle but giving them even an inkling into
just how deep this rabbit hole goes causes them to completely shut down.
There seems to be a limit to just how much awesome one brain can hold at
a time.

On 6/13/2015 4:08 PM, Jay Berkenbilt ejb@ql.org [4D_Cubing] wrote:
>
>
> I’ve actually found most of my math/computer-oriented co-workers to be
> quite fascinated by this. It actually happened to me once that someone
> at work came up to me and said, "I saw your name on a website about a
> 4D Rubik’s Cube puzzle. Was that you?" It’s also happened before that
> someone who googled for me (usually recruiters, maybe because of my
> open source work or whatever) have specifically mentioned this as
> something that piqued their interest. As a guy in his mid 40’s working
> in an office with a whole bunch of 20-somethings, being associated
> with multidimensional puzzles of this sort has quite a bit of a
> "coolness factor" to it. I gave a brown-bag session once on how to
> solve a regular Rubik’s cube without any memorized sequences using
> nothing more than optional pencil and paper and one single method, and
> it was pretty well-attended. Maybe I should do one using MC4D and see
> how it goes. That’s how I solved MC4D back in the early days (I was
> the second solver). Among the math/computer crowd, I almost never
> hear, "But isn’t the fourth dimension time?" Non-math people often
> seem to say that a lot.
>
> Unfortunately, I also have no more time to play with these puzzles. My
> four-year-old twins take up all my time. I know some people with older
> kids who have hobbies….
>
> Jay (still lurking)
>
> On 06/13/2015 06:35 PM, Melinda Green melinda@superliminal.com
> [4D_Cubing] wrote:
>>
>> Math folks count. Most of those that I’ve explained it to get scared
>> almost as often as the general public. Maybe for them they’re worried
>> that if they understand it, then they’ll be required to solve them.
>>
>> For readers here wondering about this stuff, please try this
>> experiment: Tell some people about the 4D cube and show it to them if
>> you can. Especially try with some people with a fair amount of math.
>> Then tell them that we also have 7D cubes as well as 3D hyperbolic
>> and abstract polyhedra and let us know how they respond to that news.
>> I’ve had people want to violently change the subject. It’s really odd.
>>
>> On 6/13/2015 1:45 PM, Craig Durward craigdurward@hotmail.com
>> [4D_Cubing] wrote:
>>> There are only a few people I know that are interested in things
>>> like this, and I can never get a coherent explanation together good
>>> enough to explain things properly to them. The pictures help a lot,
>>> though.
>>>
>>> There was one who took enough interest to look at the websites on
>>> his own - but he’s a maths postgrad, so I feel like he almost
>>> doesn’t count.
>>>
>>> ————————————————————————
>>> To: 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com
>>> From: 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com
>>> Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2015 16:45:19 -0700
>>> Subject: Re: [MC4D] Re: Sixth solve of 3^7!
>>>
>>> I think that all of us here can relate to your story. What do your
>>> friends and family think about it? I ask because I’ve found that
>>> when talking about the 4D cube, people will often quake with a
>>> strange sort of fear. Perhaps it’s something like math phobia, I’m
>>> not really sure, but when I’ve then described some of these other
>>> puzzles in even higher dimensions and strange topologies, their
>>> minds seem to implode and refuse to take in any more information.
>>> What’s it like when the lead-in to such a discussion is the 7D
>>> Rubik’s cube?
>>>
>>>
>>> On 6/12/2015 12:27 PM, Craig Durward craigdurward@hotmail.com
>>> <mailto:craigdurward@hotmail.com> [4D_Cubing] wrote:
>>>
>>> Well, I did it after a lot of hesitation. I remember thinking
>>> I’d never bother to finish it, but once I get so far with
>>> something I’m loathe to let it go, no matter how long it takes.
>>>
>>> As for where the time comes from: I did it just after the birth
>>> of my son. The only way we could get him to settle in those days
>>> was when he was asleep on someone, so I thought I might as well
>>> try it if I was going to be confined to a chair for long periods
>>> of time. I had plenty of time to do it before he grew out of
>>> that phase (unfortunately for me and his mum).
>>>
>>> He (and his baby brother) is a bit more demanding of my time now
>>> - I barely have time to do a 3^3, never mind a 3^7.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>>
>>> Craig
>>>
>>> ————————————————————————
>>> To: 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com <mailto:4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com>
>>> From: 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com <mailto:4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com>
>>> Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2015 03:06:59 -0700
>>> Subject: Re: [MC4D] Re: Sixth solve of 3^7!
>>>
>>> LOL, I don’t blame you, Andrey. I struggle to understand how
>>> people do find the time, and wonder if there are any limits to
>>> the lengths they will go. It would appear that I’m getting close.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 6/9/2015 1:07 AM, andreyastrelin@yahoo.com
>>> <mailto:andreyastrelin@yahoo.com> [4D_Cubing] wrote:
>>>
>>> I’m not in this game :) Time to Big Rip is too short to
>>> spend 70 hours for another solve of this monster :)
>>> Andrey
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
>