hi everybody I wanted to make a quick video that was not related to Cardno but is related to the death of a great man John Horton Conway I just got a text message literally a few minutes ago that Conway has passed from coronavirus he was 82 years old and was one of my favorite mathematicians and one that I like so much that if you look at the front page of the average K website you have an option to switch it over to Conway's Game of Life Conway was a very unique type of mathematician in that he didn't particularly care about his career rather he just enjoyed working on very strange problems things like the monster group he created games in the 90s he created a game called the angel problem and it's commonly referred to as angels versus demons he broke papers on the nature of free will he loved collaborating with people and it was all around in my view the definition of what a mathematician is somebody who is both intellectually curious and enjoys asking questions of why does it work that way and what if it worked differently and can we build a reality where it does and ask what happens next he was also an extremely good problem solver and willing to collaborate with nearly anyone from the young to the very old and Conway really was an extraordinary mind all throughout up until his 80s the last few years he's had he had a lot of health problems and unfortunately it looks like he was the exact demographic that has a very hard time with coronavirus and it wasn't to where that he contracted it it looks like he contracted it about three days ago and it's what finally did him in but he had had a lot of difficulty I believe he had a stroke recently and it made it difficult for him to travel and it made it difficult for him to continue collaborating with people I read a lot of his work including his book on cemeteries which is a wonderful book and it introduces new notation and a new way of looking at the world and I was inspired by a lot of the things that he did and I tried to actually get Conway to come to the I which K summit in April last year but unfortunately his health had deteriorated to a point where it became very difficult for him to travel from those of you who don't know him there's a great biography written by CL bond and she it's called genius at play I believe let me check that real quick so I get it right yeah see I've been Roberts and I'd highly recommend that book it's quite accessible and gives you a good sense of the types of things that that Conway worked on and his personality it's a great loss for the mathematical community and they're just certain people when they go they're really difficult to replace if they ever do for example I remember when I remember when how most died that was a hard one he did a lot of great work with the AMS and a lot of great work on the publication side a and I remember when Paul Irish died that was another loss to the mathematical community and so this one is certainly a hard one because he was in many ways the the soul and the spirit of the community so I wish his family well and I know they must be grieving now and he was 82 so he was getting to an age where these things happen but I hope this inspires many people moving forward to enter mathematics and to continue his legacy and work on the problems that he couldn't solve especially work around the monster group and so we wish you well Conway and I'm very sad to hear about your parting anyway I just wanted to make a video on this one there are very few people that I touched me that as much as Conway did and work I respect as much as Conway's an attitude that I respect as much as Conway's so I felt it fitting to make a video about it and I guess the best way of honoring a man like this is to just keep doing the things that he did and to keep working on the things that he worked on and it does remind us that eventually diseases come that take people from us who we truly appreciate and enjoy so thank you all for listening in to Conway's family we wish you well he was a great man and we'll remember him the mathematical community will remember him and we'll make sure that the work now enters the Paul artist used to say the book and we'll keep reading that book Cheers
