a random walk in 2 dimensions

While I wouldn’t trade my new job as Particle Zookeeper for my previous positions in cubicleland, I do find that working from home has its pros and cons. And while sewing can be satisfying in a zen way, I find that it gets pretty tedious for the mind. So while I sit at home and sew, I play movies, lectures, podcasts –- anything to feed my mind.

Having nearly exhausted all the legitimate science edutainment on YouTube, I was in search of a quick and easy way to dial up something mind-expanding to listen to while I worked. By pressing Apple-J, you can have the computer read any highlighted text on a web page. So I found a fun and informative game where I listen to an entire Wikipedia page. After it’s done, I have to click on any one link on that page that I find interesting and would like to learn more about. Then listen to that page, etc., ad infinitum. The fun lies in that you’re never sure where it will take you, but you are learning every step of the way.

Today’s trajectory so far:
Richard Feynman
Murray Gell-Mann
Santa Fe Institute
complexity science
random walk
Mandelbrot
Dark sky riddle (Olbers’ paradox)
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics

It occurred to me that the game itself is a random walk, so it’s a beautiful coincidence to have learned of that phenomenon today. This game is a 2-D random walk, because there is a chance you will will end up where you started.

EPILOGUE: Later in the day after writing this, I needed to get out of the house so I went to pick up some things at the store across the street. On the way back, on a whim, I decided to walk up a different street I had not been on in quite some time, in the opposite direction from home (granted I need the exercise bad). I began to walk down various streets, turning randomly before realizing, well into the walk, that I was literally on a random walk. The intent had just been to get some exercise, but my previous dabblings in random walks must have seeped into my subconscious. Every once in awhile, it’s good to have a random, random day.