Sanjoy Mahajan

It‘s such a tragedy that he died so young. Prof Mackay was a role model who impacted our world in many positive ways (e.g. his work in information theory, Bayesian statistics, environmental science). I recommend his lecture on information theory which is available on youtube [1]. He also documented the progress of his cancer very detailed on his blog [2], which is a very interesting (and sad) read. [1] https://youtu.be/BCiZc0n6COY [2] http://itila.blogspot.com/?m=1

I just learned about Mackay's lectures on YouTube and am working through the same. Outstanding teacher. I was so sad to see he died shortly after the course was recorded. He has a gripping/heartbreaking chronicle at https://itila.blogspot.com

His diary is remarkable, highly recommended. Here is an index to his posts for easier navigation: http://itila.blogspot.de/2016/04/index-for-first-23-cancer-chapters.ht…

The book recommended here, David MacKay's Without the Hot Air really is remarkable, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in energy, renewables, or nuclear (which MacKay somewhat grudgingly endorses), and the energy-intensity of modern industrial life. http://www.withouthotair.com MacKay himself, a CalTech-trained physicist, worked at Cambridge. He died about five months ago, noted only modestly at HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11500614 http://itila.blogspot.com/2016/04/index-for-first-23-cancer-chapters.h… Of the book, I find a few things particularly illuminating. For starters, it is rather UK-centric, though the concepts are of course generally applicable. Beyond that: 1. It goes through the major uses of energy in modern life. Getting a feel for the comparative magnitudes is quite useful. 2. It compares the various options for renewable energy. It turns out that there's a lot less energy in renewables than would be convenient. Wind and Solar are much of the easy stuff. 3. It mapps out both energy consumption and use by area. Realising how many watts per square meter are used and are available is useful. 4. He really presses the point that solving the energy conundrum requires large changes. Unplugging charging devices won't cut it. Hitting major consumption, especially transport, heating, lighting, and refrigeration, help a lot. If you're interested in pursuing the issues further, I strongly recommend Vaclav Smil, whose…

A British scientist and mathematician known for two fine books, both of which are available to read online. "Sustainable Energy - without the hot air" (http://www.withouthotair.com/) does the sums on sources of sustainable energy, to try to establish whether they present a realistic alternative to fossil fuels. It might make sense to read this as a companion to Bret Victor's "What can a technologist do about climate change?" (http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/), though MacKay's book mostly doesn't talk about climate change but about fuel exhaustion. "Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms" (http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/itila/) is a readable and charming (but mathematical) book that touches on a lot of topics in information theory. A lot of it is over my head, but I most recently referred to it just a couple of weeks ago for its chapters about the mathematics of neural nets, including a chapter given to estimating the information capacity of a single neuron. He was only 48 and had stomach cancer, which he wrote about on his blog (http://itila.blogspot.co.uk/).

Just read his post where he describes receiving his diagnosis and initial treatment. https://itila.blogspot.com/2015/08/unexpected-signs-of-malignancy.html Now I feel emotionally exhausted. I really hope I live long enough to see cancer eradicated.

It nigh-on was. There were three appendices, one of which made it into The Times and The Telegraph but got misrepresented by them; and then a posthumous post by the spouse that is still accruing undeleted comment spam (I've only found 2 real comments out of 236.) in September 2025. * https://itila.blogspot.com/2016/04/davids-last-interview.html?showComm… * https://itila.blogspot.com/2016/04/appendix-one-horlicks.html?showComm… * https://thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/dying-scientists-tears-over… * https://telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/04/15/cambridge-professor-reduced…

Is this the post you mean? http://itila.blogspot.com/2016/04/appendix-two-open-letter-to-director…

Before research into sustainable energy, David MacKay had rediscovered Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes in early 90s, perhaps the most common type of error correction codes used nowadays in commercial systems (alongside with Reed Solomon codes used for storage). He then worked on sustainable energy long before it became fashionable. His early death was a significant loss. He blogged cheerfully from hospital til few days before his death http://itila.blogspot.com/2016/04/perhaps-my-last-post-well-see.html?m… Rest In Peace David MacKay.

There's some active development at https://github.com/ipomoena/dasher/releases , discussed by David at http://itila.blogspot.com/2016/03/dasher-version-50-released.html

His book 'Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms', often posted here on HN: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/itila/p0.html His donation page: https://www.justgiving.com/davidjcmackay?utm_source=email&utm_medi… How he dealt with his illness: http://itila.blogspot.gr/2016/01/bye-bye-chemotherapy-hello-tp53.html?…

This post on David working out what to tell his children (age 1 and 4) about his cancer is moving http://itila.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/what-do-you-tell-children.html