April was the month of mathematics

April 2020 was the scheduled date for the most recent Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month. It is a biannual event, i.e. held once every two years. Sadly, it was uniquely ill-timed to coincide with the arrival of the full-force of the COVID-19 global pandemic. A lot of recurring events have fallen by the wayside. 

Tea for 8 by S. Goldstine

Possibly even worse is the fact that I see no mention of

any activities for 2022. I noticed this while browsing through the pages of the online Mathematical Imagery SIG (special interest group) of the American Mathematical Society (AMS). I encourage readers to visit! Included here are two scaled-down examples that I liked. 

The Four-Color Theorem works for any map on a plane or a sphere, i.e. four colors are sufficient to color every neighboring region with a different color. For other shapes, say this toroidal tea set, eight colors were necessary. 

Polar coordinates
by D.A. Lakew 

The shape on the left is a group of super-imposed polar surfaces. There is much more, along with detailed explanations, equations, etc. 

 You will also find pleasing drawing such as those I shared in my Cornucopia of Mathematics post, dating back to the turn of the century, uh, this century. Although I didn't hot link to the images (well, maybe one), and gave full credit to the source, a 2003 academic event at a university in New England, I noticed a few months later that the source web pages had gone 404 error not found.

On the origins of Mathematics Awareness Month

As any blog reader of mine knows, I strive to find surprising information. The origin of AMS's Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month can be traced back to none other than... Ronald Reagan?  

Yes, former U.S. President Reagan established the event in 1986, by Presidential Proclamation, with the following announcement:

Despite the increasing importance of mathematics to the progress of our economy and society, enrollment in mathematics programs has been declining at all levels of the American educational system. Yet the application of mathematics is indispensable in such diverse fields as medicine, computer sciences, space exploration, the skilled trades, business, defense, and government. To help encourage the study and utilization of mathematics, it is appropriate that all Americans be reminded of the importance of this basic branch of science to our daily lives. 

 --via President Ronald Reagan, Proclamation 5461 - National Mathematics Awareness Week, April 17, 1986 PDF

If Reagan had only known what would happen in the future maybe he would have made it an executive order instead of a mere proclamation.

The Future?

A lot of the problems with "the future" or rather, the present, are a result of globalization and neoliberalism, e.g. offshoring manufacturing to China. Don't forget how American engineers were forced to train H1-B visa holders as their job replacements. Although IEEE figured out that the STEM crisis was a myth, employers preferred to hire low wage replacements rather than an American workforce of science, engineering, mathematics, and technology degree holders.

In 2014, I heard a lot of talk in the news media about our best and brightest becoming knowledge workers. Amazon's Mechanical Turk would supposedly utilize these new knowledge workers. It is a Jeff Bezos creation. Mechanical Turk enables people with college degrees from all over the world to bid on "micro jobs" that pay an average of 50 cents for an hour of online work. I think they call it the gig economy. 

This is a better description: Inside Amazon’s click worker platform or, how half a million people are being paid pennies to train AI.