Today we celebrate the merger between the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) and Al Andalus in Second Life. The two communities have a lot in common, and many differences. Both are communities in the best sense - representing diverse interests and people. The CDS was formed almost five years ago (with one sim then called 'Neualteburg') to experiment with forms of self-governance in virtual worlds and bring a unique architectural style into SL. Al Andalus was formed out of the CDS two years ago (at one point it was a contender in the contest for our third sim) and has forged its own unique path to explore issues of faith, tolerance and inclusivity. Both communities stand to be reinvigorated by this merger. I have no doubt that this is the single biggest event in the history of both of these virtual communities and that both stand to benefit greatly from this union.
I've recently been reading a book called 'Lost History' which covers the enduring legacy of Muslim thinkers, artists, scientists and mathematicians. It's fascinating to read of figures that I half knew about and learn more about the preservation, development and transmission of art, culture, science and philosophy from the West to the Islamic world and back again over the centuries. Along with the merger of CDS and AA, the latest addition to the CDS is a dedicated sim for the Monastery. Both the Monastery in the CDS and the House of Wisdom and the Convivencia Institute in AA promote knowledge and culture and help to counter the loss of history. On this occasion of the merger between the CDS and AA, I want to highlight and celebrate the contribution of one man to our common scientific heritage. For me this is symbolic of the reality of the links that unite both the Muslim world and the West and of the fact that both can learn from the other.
My first career (in RL) was as a mathematics teacher. When students used to ask (as they always do) what the point was of learning algebra, geometry or calculus when it did not appear to be of use to their daily lives my stock answer was "Because it's beautiful!" I'm afraid I do think that mathematics is beautiful but I recognise that this is not a universally-shared perspective! The quotation from the Qur'an at the start of this blog post also reflects something about the beauty of mathematics and the search for the divine in numbers. The beauty I see in the language of mathematics is that of the reflection of nature and of its abstraction into mathematical representation. There is a beauty in regularity and order and, also, in the mathematics of chaos. We would not be able to see much of this beauty if it were not for the work of Mohamed al-Khwarizmi.
Born in around 780 C.E. in Persia, al-Khwarizmi was recruited to the House of Wisdom in Baghdad by the Caliph al-Mamun to assist in the translation of Greek mathematical (and other) texts. But al-Khwarizmi went further than the Greeks and sought ancient Hindu texts, reputed to have been written by the mathematician Brahmagupta centuries before. The archivists of the House of Wisdom managed to find a 200 year old book called Brahma Sphuta Siddhanta or Opening of the Universe. Both the Hindu original and the Arabic translation commissioned by al-Khwarizmi are lost to us now but a Latin translation of the work made several centuries later survives.
From the translation of the pages came forward the notion of nothingness, represented as a dot. The dot, when developed as a concept, became the numeral we recognise today as zero. It is difficult to express quite how revolutionary this concept was as it is now so fundamental to our understanding of the world but without it, it is difficult to do any higher mathematics. Zero, combined with the place value system of units, tens, hundreds etc. allowed an explosion of mathematical discovery. The Hindu-Arabic numerals that form our familiar number system enabled modern technology and civilisation to rise. Without them - no computers, no virtual worlds and no Second Lives!
In the subsequent years, al-Khwarizmi and his fellow mathematician-translators, brought Muslim mathematics up to the level of the Greeks, Byzantines and Indians and surpassed them. He gave his name to the algorithm and is best remembered for his work on algebra - the name for the concept comes from his "Al-Jabr wa al-Muqabala" translated as "The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing".
Algebra unlocks the potential to construct the fabulous buildings within which we live and work, the space probes and telescopes which examine the wonder of the heavens, model chemical reactions within the body and nuclear reactions in a power plant. For all of that we are, in part, in debt to al-Khwarizmi.
