About
Why “Critically, Thomas”?
The title was a late night musing. I was thinking about all the different things I enjoy reading, studying, doing — and no one thing stuck. Since I’m starting my Master’s in Applied Mathematics, coming up with a coy title seemed necessary. I bounced between “Hamiltonian of Thomas” and “d/dt(TSP)”, but those were a bit excessive and niche. Critically, Thomas stuck as a simple play on words.
A short explanation of criticality: I became familiar with the concept from Dr. John Beggs, who studies brain criticality in neuronal firing patters. There’s a hypothesis in the field specifically called the “critical brain hypothesis”, which claims that the brain operates near the boundry between slow, predictable behavior and fast, chaotic behavior, allowing for the more efficient transmission of messages[^1]. While I don’t know if this hypothesis is true, I know that criticality is an interesting lens with which we can look at many phenomena, and particularly, one with which I can look at myself.
Why Write Critically, Thomas?
Wait Who is Thomas?
Thomas is me 😊