Forward into the Past:

A Revival of Old Visual Talents with Computer Visualization

Thomas G. West work has been word-based. It seems evident great difficulty of dealing effectively with the
Visualization Research Institute that this is about to change. We should enormous masses of data that have now to be
expect to move in fits and starts from a world assessed. Increasingly, computer-generated
based on words to a world based on images. multi-dimensional graphic displays are helping
A Revival of Visual And, as these changes occur, it would seem scientists detect relationships in data that
Talents and Skills likely that the wonderfully diverse and innova- would never have been detected by conven-
As we move forward into the future, we may tive membership of SIGGRAPH would have a tional methods.
expect a revival of visual talents and skills special role in pressing ahead and guiding For example, some years ago scientists
once highly valued, but long considered of these developments - bringing together the using c o m p u t e r graphics at Stanford
lesser value in a modern culture long domi- arts and the sciences in powerful combina- University were beginning to see "patterns in
nated by words. Indeed, it may be significant tions impossible in other spheres. data that never would have been picked up
that our culture is so word-bound that we More and more of those working at the with standard statistical techniques" In cases
find it difficult to even talk about visual profi- edge of these new technologies, in the sci- such as these, the purpose of data analysis is
ciencies without referring to word-oriented ences as well as business or the professions, to "discover patterns, to find non-random
terminology. It is apparent, but not often are coming to recognize the emerging power clusters of data points" In the past, this was
noted that "visual literacy" really has nothing of these new developments. For example, Dr. usually done with mathematical formulas.
to do with words or with literature. Larry Smarr, a physicist, astronomer and However, with the use of animated computer
Each technology has its limits. Long ago, d i r e c t o r of the National C e n t e r for graphics, "it has become possible to look at
Socrates described some second thoughts he Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), has three-dimensional projections of the data"
had about the new and questionable technolo- commented: "1 have often argued in my public and to employ "the uniquely human ability to
gy called a "book" He thought it had several talks that the graduate education process that recognize meaningful patterns in the data:'4
weaknesses. A book could not adjust what it produces physicists is totally skewed to select- Developments such as these are encourag-
was saying, as a living person would, to what ing those with analytic skills and rejecting ing in themselves, as new ways are found to
would be appropriate for certain listeners or those with visual or holistic skills. I have recognize meaningful patterns and slowly peel
specific times or places. Also, a book could claimed that with the rise of scientific visual- away, in a most unexpected and surprising
not be interactive as in a conversation or dia- ization as a new mode of scientific discovery, a manner, other whole layers of reality. But
log between persons. And finally, according to new class of minds will arise as scientists" 2 these developments are of special interest
Socrates, in a book the written words "seem Consequently, the f u r t h e r ahead we because of the way they shift emphasis to pri-
to talk to you as if they were intelligent, but if advance with the newer computer technolo- marily visual modes of analysis and thought.
you ask them anything about what they say, gies, surprisingly, the more we seem likely to Such trends are especially important in the
from a desire to be instructed, they go on see a revival of visual approaches and perspec- newly developing fields of chaos and fractals.
telling you just the same thing forever:'' After tives largely abandoned in many fields long Some see these fields as now excessively fash-
more than two millennia, it now seems that a ago. In some areas, disdain for visual or graph- ionable. Others see them as really new tools
new kind of technology, with interactive multi- ical or diagrammatic approaches has been what will permit, in time, really new
media capabilities, may be beginning to strikingly strident. For example, for many approaches to understanding patterns in
address some of Socrates' concerns. As we decades, most mathematicians and some sci- nature. In any case, these new approaches are
move forward, we might measure our relative entists have tried to turn away from visual clearly providing additional cause to consider
success by his ancient standard. approaches as much as possible. Now in many a return to visual thinking. The developments
Just as print technologies added to and disciplines these visual approaches are seen as associated with chaos research suggest the
superseded solely oral communications, so having great value once again.3 beginning of a major trend away from tradi-
too, in the new visual era, we might expect tional mathematical analysis and, instead,
that a whole new generation of powerful, toward the analysis of visual images.
interactive visualization technologies and tech- Data Visualization As one observer of the early development
niques could soon turn upside down many As many computer professionals are aware,
of chaos theory has observed: "Chaos has
long-held beliefs, including conventional evalu- visual modes of thought and learning are being
become not just theory but also method, not
ations about what is worth learning, what is given increasingly serious attention - partly
just a canon of beliefs but also a way of doing
worth doing and about who is intelligent. because of the growing capabilities of new
science... To chaos researchers, mathematics
For a very long time, serious academic computers but also partly because of the

I. Plato,Phaedrus,CollectedDialogues,quoted in American, 1993. Gesellschaft,G/~ttingen,Germany,November

Norman, DonaldA., pp. 45-46. 3. Partsof this article haveappearedpreviouslyin 1993,P.Wittenburg and T. Plesser(eds.). Some
2. Larry Smarr, personal communication,e-mail the Germanlanguageconferenceproceedings: of the materialsummarizedhere has appeared
messageof August 6, 1994.In references,see "A Returnto VisualThinking" in Scienceand previouslyin In the Mind's Eye and other presen-
Kaufmannand Smarr,"Supercomputingand Scientific Computing.Visionsof a CreativeSymbiosis, tations and articles by the author.
the Transformationof Science" Scientific Symposiumof Computer Users in the Max Planck Kolata,"Statistics" Science, 1982,pp. 919-920.

!4 November1995Computer Graphics
has become an experimental science, with the past by those most proficient in verbal - logi- (not very long ago), logic and rigorous proof
computer replacing laboratories full of test cal - m a t h e m a t i c a l m o d e s o f t h o u g h t . were seen as the most important aspects of
tubes and microscopes. Graphic images are However, while the application of these tech- serious mathematics. In recent years, however,
the key. 'It's masochism for a mathematician to niques may now be expanding, they have long this has changed. Currently, many leading pro-
do w i t h o u t pictures,' one chaos specialist been used by a gifted and dedicated few. fessional mathematicians now see that visualiza-
would say. ' H o w can they see the relationship tion, experimentation and original discovery
between that motion and this? H o w can they Visualization and Statistics are of pnme importance - a position unthink-
develop intuition?' Some carry out their w o r k Those w h o naturally gravitate toward a visual able by most respectable mathematicians only a
explicitly denying that it is a revolution; others approach have often seemed ro be in the short time ago."
deliberately.use "the" language of paradigm minority - although they seemed to be part of An emerging consensus point of view has
shifts to describe the changes they witness"'s an especially c r e a t i v e and p r o d u c t i v e been described by one mathematics professor
In o t h e r areas, some observers suggest minority"" For example, the late 19th-century who is familiar with years of debate within the
chat in general data visualization in business English statistician Karl Pearson and his son profession: "Mathematics is often defined as
applications Is about ten years behind visual- E.S. Pearson both relied heavily on visual the science of space and number, as the disci-
ization in the sciences, ~ Few are using these images in their innovative statistical w o r k . pline r o o t e d in g e o m e t r y and a r i t h m e t i c .
techniques and those few that are, apparently They were surprised that their professional Although the diversity of m o d e m mathematics
do not like t o talk much about it. However, colleagues and students used visualization has always exceeded this definition, it was nor
there is evidence that mainstream business rarely, if at all. These associates believed that until the recent resonance of computers and
users are just now beginning to take visual- visualization was useful only for presentation m a t h e m a t i c s t h a t a m o r e apt d e f i n i t i o n
ization techniques seriously. For example, a t o o r d i n a r y laypersons - w h e r e a s the became fully evident. Mathematics is the sci-
recent issue of the Economist magazine car- Pearsons saw visualization as the essential ence of patterns. The mathematician seeks
ried a story about visualization of trading and grounding for their most creative work. patterns in number, in space, in science, in
financial data, featuring the products of a In his l e c t u r e notes, Karl Pearson computers, and in imagination.,. To the extent
small Canadian company which provide an observed: "Contest of geometry and arith- that mathematics is the science of patterns,
"entire p o r t f o l i o encapsulated as a three- metic as scientific tools in dealing with physi- computers change not so much the nature of
dimensional moving picture]' Using language cal and social phenomena. Erroneous opinion the discipline as its scale: computers are t o
familiar t o visualizers of scientific data, the that geometry is only a means of popular rep- mathematics what telescopes and microscopes
article speaks of increased capacity of the resentation; rather it is a fundamental method are t o science... Because of computers, we
N e w York Stock Exchange t o handle com- of investigating and analyzing statistical materi- see that mathematical discovery is like scientif-
plex information visually: "We're drowning in al" g Writing in the 1950s, the son lamented ic discovery... Theories emerge as patterns of
lots of data and we need ways of making that "the prestige of mathematical procedures patterns, and significance is measured by the
sense of it." Indeed, the article suggests that based on a l g e b r a i c f o r m u l a e is d e e p l y degree t o which patterns in one area link to
the use of these techniques may have saved entrenched in our lecture courses and our patterns in other areas..,,,~z
Barings, the British bank that collapsed in text-books, so that few mathematical statisti- The far-reaching consequences of this
February 1995 through the hidden manuver- cians will use t o the full their visual faculties change in perspective can be partly seen in
ings of a rogue Barings trader in Singapore. unless they are trained to do so.''m the concurrent major reevaluation of certain
Spotting such a trader "is often a matter of u n i v e r s i t y - l e v e l m a t h e m a t i c s courses in
luck rather than judgement" However, "with recenr years. Although this reevaluation has
a 3-D v i e w o f w h a t t r a d e r s are d o i n g ,
Visualization and been widespread - with many alternative pro-
strange strategies o r dangerous positions Mathematics posals f o r i m p r o v e m e n t s and e x t e n s i v e
jump right out of the picture; '7 In the past, visualization was rare in many fields. debate among professional mathematicians -
Thus, a new pattern may be emerging. This is changing. In the past few years, the in most instances real change has been slow
N e w tools will increasingly require new skills w o r l d of the professional mathematician has t o take place. A n d in many cases t h o s e
and talents. With the further development of been undergoing fundamental change-reversing, changes actually implemented have been rela-
smaller, cheaper but more powerful comput- in many respects, more than a hundred years of tively modest in scope.
ers having sophisticated visual-projection capa- d e v e l o p m e n t in the opposite direction. In In some cases, on the o t h e r hand, the
bilities, we might expect a new trend t o be recent years, professional mathematicians have changes have been quite extensive, with dra-
emerging in which visual proficiencies could been rethinking the way they view their whole matic results. In one case, for example, three
play an increasingly imporcmt role in areas that discipline - as well as the ways they think their professors have developed innovative course-
have been almost exclusively dominated in the discipline should be taught_ In the the old days ware for teaching calculus as an interactive

5. Gleick, (3~aos, 1987, pp. 38-39. One psychologist, Howard Gardner, distinguish- for most of the tasks used by experimental psy-
6. Larry Smarr, personal communication, June as several major forms of intelligence, but chologists, linguistic and spatial intelligences
1995. argues for the special status of visual-spatial provide the principle sources of storage and
7. Ecan0rn/s~"Seeing Is Believing" August 19, 1995, intelligence in contrast to verbal intelligence: "In solution." Gardner, Framesof Mind, 1983, p. 177.
p. 71. the view of many,spatial intelligence is the 9. Karl Pearson, quoted in E.S.Pearson,"Scsristics"
B. It should be noted that broad definitions of 'other intelligence' - the one that should be Papers, 1966, p. 252.
'~erbal" and "visual" (and, closely related,"spa- arrayed against,and be considered equal in I0. Pearson,"Statistics" Papers, 1966, p. 253.
tial") capabilities are used here, referring in part Importance to, 'linguistic intelligence" "Although I I. See Zimmerman and Cunningham,Visualiz~on
co the varied but apparently antithetical thinking Gardner does not subscribe to the in ... Ma~emalJcs, 199 I.
sL'ylesgenerally believed to be embodied in the dichotomizadon of intelligence Into separate 12. Steen, "Patterns" 5dence, 1988, p. 616.
left and right cerebral hemispheres, respectively. hemispheres, he says: "Still, I would admit that,

Computer Graphia November1995 IS

 laboratory course using a graphics computer traction of translating what your eyes see into al right hemisphere is increased - producing
together with a high-level mathematics pro- words. Take advantage of this opportunity to an unusual symmetry of brain form and func-
gram - one designed to do mathematics in all learn visually with pure thought uncorrupted tion. '6 In ordinary people, the left hemisphere
of its three major forms: numerical, symbolic by strange words. The words go onto an idea tends to be larger than the right; in visual
and graphical. only after the idea has already settled in your thinkers with verbal difficulties, the left and
Unlike many other course innovations, mind. This aspect of Calculus&Mathematica right hemispheres tend to be of approximately
such changes are not just additions to the reg- distinguishes it from other math courses: '14 the same size. Varied visual talents mixed with
ular class lectures, but rather, they have had It perhaps also of no small importance that verbal difficulties are evident in a diverse
e n o r m o u s impact in transforming all aspects students who learn in this new way have group of highly gifted historical persons:
of the teaching and learning process. Instead shown that, in comparison with the traditional Michael Faraday,James Clerk Maxwell, Albert
of spending lots of time learning by hand rou- course, they understand the basic concepts Einstein, Henri Poincar, Thomas Edison,
tines that can be quickly done by the comput- better, can remember the information longer Leonardo da Vinci, Winston S. Churchill, Gen.
er, the students are pressed to move rapidly and can apply the concepts to practical uses George S. Patton and William Butler Yeats.17
on to high-level conceptual matters and a vari- more effectively. It is increasingly apparent that
ety of practical problems, focusing mainly on many of the consequences seen in this new
examples from medicine, biology and the life
Michael Faraday
teaching approach - using interactive graphical It is instructive to look at Michael Faraday,an
sciences. This is in marked contrast to the tra- computer systems with advanced software English scientist of the early 19th century. The
ditional calculus problem sets which are now and courseware - may indicate possibilities for son of an unemployed blacksmith, Faradaywas
seen by professional mathematicians in Europe effective innovation in many other disciplines. for years a welfare recipient and had virtually
as well as America as being highly contrived Thus, these new teaching approaches may be no formal education. However, after eight
and artificial, with little relevance to real math- merely one manifestation of a much larger years as an apprentice book-binder - with a
ematics in either research or application. trend - as many disciplines find distinctive Frenchman who had fled to London to escape
A recent unpublished evaluation summa- ways to return to visual thinking and learning. the French Revolution - he started work as a
rizes some of the radical curricular innovations
bottle washer and junior laboratory assistant.
and the increased effectiveness of this new
type of laboratory calculus course: "The new
Visual Talents and Verbal Through years of self education and intensive
course changed the delivery of calculus from Difficulties laboratory work, he eventually became direc-
There is increasing evidence that many highly tor of the laboratory, The Royal Institution,
lectures and texts to a laboratory course
original and productive thinkers have clearly and earned a reputation for being the greatest
through an electronic interactive text... One
preferred visual over verbal modes of thought experimental scientist of his time-formulating,
of the most remarkable characteristics was the
for many tasks. Some psychologists and neu- among many accomplishments in chemistry
student's exploration through calculation and
rologists argue that visual-spatial abilities and physics, the basic ideas of electricity and
plottings. In the traditional calculus courses,
should in fact be seen as a special form of magnetism.
the instructor announces the mathematical
intelligence, on a par with verbal or logical- Faraday started w i t h chemistry and
theory and then reinforces it with examples
and exercises, and students recite the theory mathematical forms of intelligence. ~s moved on to physics and the study of elec-
and solve problems illustrating the theory. In Historically, it is apparent that some of the tricity, light and magnetism. He thought of
the new course, however, the learning pattern most original and gifted thinkers in the physi- himself as a "philosopher" and hated being
of students.., was dramatically different. The cal sciences, engineering, mathematics, and called a "chemist" or a "physicist" - because
experimentation by redoing, reformatting, other areas relied heavily on visual modes of he hated the limited world view of the spe-
rethinking, adapting, and making changes led thought, employing images instead of words cialist approach. He liked to look at wholes,
students to discover the basic concepts and or numbers. However, it is notable that some not pieces.
principles for themselves... The students... of these same gifted thinkers have shown evi- Among many original discoveries, he devel-
indicated that they had a feel for 'doing' math- dence of a striking range of verbally-related oped the first electric motor. But most impor-
ematics instead of 'watching' mathematics''~3 learning problems, including difficulties with tant, he developed utterly original ideas about
As we try to identify the causes of success reading, spelling, writing, calculation, speaking the fundamental nature of energy and matter -
in this approach, it may be no small matter that and memory. What is of greatest interest here the electromagnetic "field" and "lines of force"
the students are encouraged to think and learn is not the difficulties themselves but their fre- These ideas were later translated into proper
visually first - before traditional lectures and quent and varied association with high visual mathematical form by James Clerk Maxwell
verbal description. A major shift in learning and spatial talents. and later still became a powerful influence on
technique (along with a delightful informality Several neurologists believe that some- the young Albert Einstein. Remarkably, these
and irreverence) is apparent in the the authors' times the high visual talents are closely associ- ideas have proved to be valid and useful since
explanation to their students: "One of the ated with various forms of verbal difficulties the time they were first developed in the mid-
beauties of learning the Calculus&Mathematica because of certain early patterns of neurologi- dle of the 19th century. With each new scien-
way is your opportunity to learn through cal development. Recent research suggests tific revolution since, many old theories and
graphics you can interact with. In this course, that in some forms of early brain growth the concepts have become rapidly outdated. But
your eyes will send ideas directly to your development of the verbal left hemisphere is on the whole, those of Faraday and Maxwell
brain. And this will happen without the dis- suppressed while the development of the visu- just keep looking better and better. ~8

13. Park, Study, 1993,p. 162.Someitalics havebeen 15. Gardner,Frames, 1983. NationalAcademy, 1982.
deletedfrom the quoted text 16.Geschwindand Galaburda,Lateralization, 1987; 17.West, Mind's Eye, 199I, pp. 29-40, I01- 175.
14. Davis,Porta and Uhl, Welcome to CALCULUS & Geschwind, "Orton Was Right,"Annals, 1982; 18 West, Mind's Eye, 199I.
MathematJca, 1994,p.I I. Geschwindand Behan,"Left-Handedness"

16 November1995Computer Graphics
 As a youth, he explained rhat he was not Like Faraday, Maxwell was a strong visual details about his early life, commenting about
precocious o r a deep thinker Bur he said chat thinker, There are many references in the his lace d e v e l o p m e n t of speech; his slow
he was a "lively imaginative person" and could biographies and letters as well as the com- answers but deep understanding in mathemat-
believe in the Arabian Nighl~ as easily as the mentaries of historians of science. He could ics; his f r e q u e n t calculation e r r o r s even
Encyclopedia. However, he found a refuge from easily understand Faraday's highly visual ideas though he had a clear understanding of the
this too lively imagination in experimentation. much b e t t e r than o t h e r s , p r e s u m a b l y main mathematical concepts involved.~
Known especially as a great experimenter, he because his visualization abilities w e r e as In secondary school, he dropped out of
found he could trust an experiment to check exceptional as Faraday's were. He was famil- school in Germany (contrary to plan) t o fol-
the truth of his ideas as well as ro educate and iar w i t h t h e m a t h e m a t i c s r e q u i r e d - as low his parents after they moved to Italy. His
inform his intuition, his mental models. In the Faraday was not - and was able to translate reason was that because of his " p o o r memo-
experiment, he said, he "had got hold of an the conceptual clarity of Faraday's theories ry/' he preferred to endure all kinds of pun-
anchor" and he "clung fast t o it.''~9 Finally, into the language of mathematics. He much ishments r a t h e r than to have t o learn t o
Faraday is seen by later scientists as being like preferred Faraday's conceptions t o those of "gabble by rote:' z7 After he failed his first set
Einstein in that he had a remarkable ability to the other professional mathematicians of his of university entrance examinations, Einstein
get co the heart of the matter and nor be dis- day. Indeed, he felt that following Faraday's went t o a new and unconventional school -
trotted by derails or blind alleys. Historians of way of looking at things produced a concep- one that was based on the highly visually-ori-
science said that Faraday "smells the truth-" tual clarity and simplicity impossible through ented ideas of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. It
They thought he had an "unfailing intuition:' the o t h e r m o r e a c c e p t a b l e s c i e n t i f i c was at this school that Einstein's abilities
They wondered at "his inconceivable instinct." 2o approaches of their time. z~ began t o blossom and the great theories
Maxwelrs visual orientation was evident later published in 1905 began to take their
James Clerk Maxwell in many aspects of his work. In mathematics initial shape,z~
and physical science, his starting point was The coexistence in Einstein of visual tal-
Plaxwell was the sort of scientist w h o was
often geometry. He used mechanical analo- ents along with verbal difficulties has been
able to deal in an extraordinary way with t w o
gies and resorted to diagrams and pictures noted by several observers. The physicist and
entirely different worlds - the world of con-
w h e r e v e r p o s s i b l e . Much o f his w o r k h i s t o r i a n o f science G e r a l d H o l t o n has
ventional mathemarics and analysis - and the
involved the interaction of force and sub- remarked:
visual w o r l d of images and models and dia-
stance in a largely visual-spatial arena_ And, "An apparent defect in a partJcular person
grams - w h i c h he, along w i t h Faraday,
finally, one historian of science w r i t i n g of may merely indicate an imbalance of 0ur
favored. Indeed, he understood and admired
Maxwell puzzled at the the appearance of normal expectations. A noted deficiency
Faraday's visualizations as did no other scien-
artists in his family, generation after genera- should alert us to look for a proficiency of a
tist of their time. Eventually, he converted
tion, although the family seemed to be other- different kind in the excoptJ0nal person. The
Faraday's ideas into mathematics for what are
wise a uniformly practical group,z4 late use of language in childhood, the diffi-
n o w k n o w n as " N a x w e l l ' s e q u a t i o n s , "
although he always maintained that these culty in learning foreign languages may indi-
were originally Faraday's ideas,z~ Albert Einstein cate a polarizalJon or displacement in some
A native of Scodand, James Clerk Maxwell In the life of Albert Einstein, the importance of the skill from the verbal to another area.
received his education in science and math- of visual learning and visual talents in conjunc- That other, enhanced area is without a
ematics at Cambridge University in England. tion wi*dl verbal difficulties has long been rec- doubt, in F_Jnstein'scase, an extraordinary
He showed himself to be a brilliant student. ognized. His p o o r m e m o r y for w o r d s and kJnd of visual imagerV that penetrates his
However, Maxwell's troubles with words mani- texts made him hate the rote learning meth- very thought processes."2~
fested itself in severe, life long speech prob- ods of his early school years. However, he
Later, in his own writing, Einstein made
lems. He was a stutterer and had continuous tended t o t h r i v e later at the progressive
clear references to what he saw as two very
career difficulties as a result - although he is school in Switzerland where he prepared co
different modes of thought, especially with
thought to be the most brilliant physicist of the take his university entrance examinations - no
regard ro his own most creative and produc-
19th century. In fact, Richard Feynman, the doubt, partly because the unconventional
tive work. He pointed our thac when he did
Nobel prize-winning American physicist, said in school was based largely on visually-oriented
really productive thinking, he always used
1963 that '~rrom the long view of the history of educational principles.2s
"more o r less clear images" and what he called
mankind - seen from, say, ten thousand years There is a debate among biographers as to
"combinatory play" as the "essential feature"
from now - there can be little doubt that the whether the young Einstein was a brilliant stu-
in his "productive thought," as well as of some
most significant event of the 19th century will dent o r whether he was a dullard. After some
"visual and some muscular type. ''s° But he
be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of time looking at these conflicting points of
explains that if he wanted t o communicate
electrodynamics. The American Civil War," view, one realizes that to some extent he was
these t h o u g h t s t o o t h e r s , he had t o go
Feynman said, "will pale into provincial insignlf- both - a pattern that is typical of highly gifted
through a difficult and laborious translation
icance in comparison with this important sci- visual t h i n k e r s w i t h verbal difficulties.
process, proceeding from images t o words and
entific event of the same decade:' zz Einstein's sister Maja recorded a number of
numbers that could be understood by others.

19. Tyndall,Discoverer, 1870, pp. 7-8. Maxwell, 1981; Everi~ Maxwell, Springs, 1983; 27. Hoffmann, Rebel, 1972, p. 25.
20. West, Mind's Eye, 199 I. West, Mind's Eye, 199 I. 28. Holton, "Genius:' Scholar, 1972;West, Mind's
2 I. Wesr~ Mind's Eye, 199 I. 24. Everitt, Maxwell, Springs, 1983. Eye, 1991.
22. Feyman,eral, Lectures, 1963. 25. Holton, "Genius",Scholar, 1972,pl~ 104-106. 29. Holcon, "Genius:' Scholar, 1972, p. 107..
23. Campbell and Garnett, Maxwell,1882; Tolstoy, 26. Einstein, Papers, 1987, p. xviii-~i. 30. Hadarnard,Inventi0n, 1954, 142-143.

Computer Graphics November1995 17

 It is anticipated that modern visualization as a century. These examples should also pro- References
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permit many more ordinary people to do been major source of creative thought in sev- 1969. The life of James Clerk Maxwell, New
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sophisticated visual ideas without having to should also expect significant modification in Davis, W., H. Porta and J. Uhl,
resort to poorly-suited verbal and mathemati- the kinds of skills and talents that are consid- Calculus&Mathematica Courseware, including
cal substitutes. ered valuable. In the past, there has been gen- software and four texts. Reading, Mass.,
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in one rather surprising account of Albert mathematical and fact-memorization skills - Economist, The, 1995. "Seeing is Believing"
Einstein's development as a professional scien- "academic skills" In the future, however, we August 19, 1995, p. 7 I.
tist. In his later career, Einstein did become might expect to see a higher regard for visual- Einstein, Albert, The Collected Papers of Albert
increasingly sophisticated in higher mathemat- ization skills and talent - for detecting subtle Einstein, Volume I.J. Stachel, ed. Princeton,
ics. However, some have argued that this patterns in moving computer images repre- N.J., Princeton University. 1987.
increased sophistication may have more of a senting complex systems - whether the Everitt, C.W.E, Maxwell's Scientific Creativity,
hindrance than a help in his later creative immune system of the body or the weather Springs of Scientific Creativity, R. Aris, et al,
work. The mathematician David Hilbert made systems of the globe or fluctuations in inter- eds. Minneapolis, Minn., University of
clear, with some exaggeration, that Einstein's national financial markets. Minnesota, 1983.
creative scientific accomplishments came from The extent of these changes might be very Feynman, Richard P., R.B. Leighton and M.
elsewhere than through his mathematical skill: great. It is useful to remind ourselves of a Sands, The Feynman Lectures on Physics,
"Every boy in the streets of G~ttingen under- remarkable continuity: that for centuries our Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1963.
stands more about four-dimensional geometry schools and universities have been essentially French, A.P., "The Story of General Relativity"
than Einstein. Yet, in spite of that, Einstein did working with the skills of the clerk - reading, Einstein: A Centenary Volume, Cambridge,
the work and not the mathematicians"'3~ writing, counting, symbol manipulation and Mass., Harvard University, 1979.
Hilbert was not alone. Indeed, Abraham memorizing texts. In spite of obvious value, Gardner, Howard, Frames of Mind: The Theory
Pals, the author of a scientific biography of the technology of the book has always been of Multiple Intelligences, Basic Books, New
Einstein, observes that Einstein's increasing somewhat one-dimensional, using the short- York, 1983.
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Thomas G. West
Visualization ResearchInsUtute
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]

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