Happy birthday R.M.P.

Today is the birthday of Robert M Persig, who sadly died in 2017. He would have been 93 today. His classic book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, has had an enormous effect on my life and career.

Since childhood, I had always been trying to reconcile the two sides of my passion, the rational and the romantic. I loved art and literature, but I also loved the austere and rigorous beauty of mathematics.These seem to be irreconcilable opposites.

Persig talks about this dichotomy directly in his book, and leads us toward a way that they can be reconciled. I found and embraced the resonance of his philosophy within my work in computer graphics.

It is a field that requires rigor and precision both in creating the underlying mathematical models and the discipline of programming computers. Yet its goal is to create beauty, sometimes transcendent romantic beauty.

Many years ago his book helped to set me on a wonderful path, which I have happily traveled ever since. For that I will be eternally grateful.

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