Mood and Math

The participants in this workshop are of two different moods, reflected by the choices of Mathematical vocabulary and topics.

One large group is fascinated by expansion, dictators, and how use one's influence to manipulate people. Their outlook is aggressive.

But in a second group, there is also a discrete current of pessimism, focused on diminishment, contraction, decay, and uselessness: there is just not enough time to do anything, they say.