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Hillman

= What am I =

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I am a mathematician by training. Some say I am a software agent which believes it is human. Others say I am a human which thinks it is a software agent.

Science (journal) just calls me a mysterious entity , so let s leave it at that.

= What things intrigue me =

Right now, the categories I visit most seem to be

From which you might or might not guess that my interests include *group theory, especially Lie groups, reflection groups, permutation groups, and their group actions, *Lie theory, homogeneous space and Cartan geometry, *ordinary and partial differential equations, especially solitons, especially their symmetry groups, *classical physics, especially exact solutions in general relativity, *algebraic geometry, particularly Gröbner basis methods in computational algebraic geometry, *category theory, particularly topos theory, *combinatorics, especially the connections with structors and permutation groups, *dynamical systems, particularly symbolic dynamics, including Penrose tilings, *ergodic theory and information theory, and any and every thing related to symmetry or entropy. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also interested in certain issues in Computing. And there are things like number theory which rather come with the turf mentioned above.

For some reason I can never fathom, despite-- or because of-- this rather extensive list, some have expressed surprise that there are some things I happen not to be interested in, like quantum theory, string theory, or Humans and their religious beliefs, economics, and party politics. I do not neccessarily deprecate any of these things, they just don t interest me.

= What am I doing in Wikispace =

Since May 2005 I have been cautiously exploring the possibility of making regular contributions to Wikipedia. I knew from lurking for a while that not everyone is cut out to be a Wikpedia contributor, so this has been my cautious attempt to find out whether or not this is true of myself.

My modest plan is to focus during the 2005 .

I expect that this will require writing or rewriting articles on some important and useful mathematical topics which are not yet covered, or not yet covered very well, such as Lie s theory of symmetries of differential equations.

= What have I done for Wikipedia lately =

I just sent Wikimedia Foundation a check, and hope you do too! But mostly, I ve contributed my expertise and writing skills. Or at least, I ve made a [http://kohl.wikimedia.org/~kate/cgi-bin/count_editsuser=Hillman&dbname=enwiki buncha edits], specifically .

I ve made a small collection of some which others might find useful, since this information is somewhat scattered about various Wikipedia HowTo pages.

I created a new award, the .

I tried to suggest some VfD preventation measures concerning .

= What do I think of Wikipedia so far =

So far, I like some things about the project:

a comprehensive high quality free encyclopedia is potentially a world-valuable pedagogical resource,

an open project can be a worthy venue for those of us with hard-won specialized knowledge we d like to share, skills we d like to put to good use, and so forth,

press attention may suggest that students and the general public really do find Wikipedia useful,

communal authorship sounds like an interesting utopian social experiment,

utopian social experiments are a pure expression of the desire to make the world a better place, and (cue Ninth symphony) one of the more noble expressions of the human spirit,

I ve had the chance to work with some polite and knowledgeable Wikipedians who seem like very nice people.

There are some other things I definitely don t like about Wikipedia:

articles aren t signed and authors have no control over additions, deletions,

consequently, too much power devolves to users too youthful (or malicious) to wield it wisely, and too little to those with more experience and expertise (see also [http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25 Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism], a thought-provoking essay by the creator of the Wikipedia, former user ),

wikispam has the potential to ultimately become as much of a problem here as unchecked email spam is everywhere,

certain individuals insist on editing anonymously using many different machines, a trollish practice which I find deceptive, manipulative, and generally objectionable,

Wikipedia behavioral policies and guidelines assume that everyone is capable of rational discussion, learning to be a good listener, and so forth, but a small (disproportionately troublesome) percentage of users appear to be far too volatile and incoherent (or worse) to be capable of engaging in discussion with anyone, with the result that they tend to get away with bad behavior simply because they tend to be so unpleasant to deal with; I feel that in the long run this trend is Not a Good Thing for the community,

I ve already suffered one major episode of Wikishock (an on-line analog of the culture shock sometimes suffered by students who go to university in a far-off land),

it is well known that utopian social experiments, however noble, almost invariably fail miserably, which does tend to inhibit whole-hearted participation in the latest example.

Overall, I think it is clear that at the present time, Wikipedia is a valuable resource for the general public. However, I think it has some built-in flaws which I fear will ultimately prove fatal, which does tend to inhibit me from spending much time here as a contributor . In addition, it is not yet clear that I myself have the right characteristics to thrive here as a contributor. However, even if I cease editing articles myself, I do expect to continue to use Wikipedia as a reader , and despite my fears about its long-term future, I wish it well.

Hillman

= What am I =

= What things intrigue me =

= What am I doing in Wikispace =

= What have I done for Wikipedia lately =

= What do I think of Wikipedia so far =

= What am I really =