José Goossen Karssenberg Islamitische Meetkundige Patronen
Note: This is a translation of a model-theoretical logical approach of the "Are we alone?' dispute into basic English. Any translation has a loss of information and many times leads to misunderstandings. My apologies.
STATEMENT:
The universe is sterile (except for the earth and some men made sattellites floating in the very nearby space).
PROOF:
A All universes one can think of are sterile (except for an extremely small minority of all thinkable universes).
B Those universes which are not sterile are either full of life or sterile (except for one unique exception).
C Our universe is not full of life.
D From B, C it follows: We are alone in our universe and no life originated but on earth.
End of proof.
Ad. A: Mathematicians designed many imaginable structures that could be interpreted as universes. None of these structures can house life.
Ad. B: 'Counting' universes is hard. Much knowledge of logic and mathematics is needed here. Hence the problem of translation. Translation for non-logicians: Most universes which are not sterile should have been sterile, but due to an extreme coincidence, at one location, life originated. Life originating at yet an other location is impossible (except for an extremely extremely small subgroup).
Ad. C: This is obvious, not only since we never found alien life but also because there is only one type of life that originated on earth.
Ad. D: This is a pure logical deduction.
Note that the statements above do not imply that we are unique and that humanity is unique. It states only that within our visible universe there is no other life except ours. However, no one knows what is there 'outside', besides our visible universe.
There may be a huge number of earth-like planets in our space. Till now (2012) we know of only one: The earth itself. Doing statistics based on only one instance is impossible. The proof above is not based on statistics, solely on logic.
Any scientist who states that the fact that there is an abundance of life on Earth makes it highly probable that there is life on other (earth-like) planets is doing bad statistics. He or she should rehearse basic probability calculus.
Recent Activities, News
Workshopdagen Valuascollege Venlo juni 2024
Klik op de foto naar een verslag
Houten versie Geofractor
De plastic geofractor uit het boekje is nu ook verkrijgbaar in de houten variant. Prijs €12,50
Boekje in zebrareeks is half april 2023 verschenen.
Artikel in Euclides
Half maart 2023 is in het vakblad van wiskundeleraren een artikel van me verschenen naar aanleiding van de publicatie van Zebra 66 Islamitische Meetkundige Patronen
Recensie Snijpunt Isfahan
Lees hier
First prototype of new aperiodic puzzle
The developing process is continued. click here.
Ars et Mathesisdag 2019
During the art- and maths day (Ars et Mathesisdag), 24 november 2018, I gave a lecture about analyzing historical geometric patterns and trying to find new ones.
Timelapse construction
A great timelapse construction by Ameet Hindocha. More can be found on the website Ambigraph
Article online available
The journal For the Learning of Mathematics made my 2014 article 'Learning geometry by designing Persian mosaics' online available: See https://flm-journal.org/Articles/2E0CB6E94D76C79C2F341680D60F17.pdf
Een kritische recensie van Snijpunt Isfahan
Here you find my reflections on a very critical review of Snijpunt Isfahan by a mathematician (in Dutch)
March 30 2018 Lecture
Lecture in Dutch
Two new 'floral'patterns
24 March 2018
Based upon the famous Alhambra pattern with circle segments. Click on the picture below to go there
14 feb 2018 Event about 'Snijpunt Isfahan' at Spui25
Look here
Interview by Dolf Jansen
Dolf Jansen interviewed Maite and me (in Dutch) during the radio program 'Spijkers met Koppen', to hear and watch the interview, klick here
Interview by Coen Verbraak
Coen Verbraak interviewed Maite and me about Maite's book 'Snijpunt Isfahan' (in Dutch), to hear and watch the interview, klick here
Official opening of Museum Gallery RAT (Recomposed Art Texel)
May 13 2017 we celebrated the opening of our new location Burgwal 20 Den Burg. Here you find artwork composed with beachcombed materials by Maria Roelofsen and my design studio for making new pattern compositions based upon the Islamic design tradition. For further information also look at www.museumgalerierat.nl
A new floral design with worksheet. Click on the picture to find more information about the Khatai Flower.
March 24th 2017
Heart cloud sun
Workshop in Amsterdam
21 august 2016 11.30-13.00
In the Tropenmuseum I delivered a workshop on the Islamic design tradition of geometric patterns in Dutch, further information here
Floral designs
A new subject is being developed and information will be available on this website: floral designs. I started today with the lotus flower. Click on the lotus below to visit the right tab.
24th of March 2016
Colour Plates available (not any more since the exhibition ended)
Download my puzzle-/colour plates at this link of the Tropenmuseum Junior
Short story 'Spiral Figures'
I wrote a short story in Dutch about a child who draws spiral figures at the beach
Students finished newly developed lesson strand on Islamic mosaic design
Click on the picture below and check the two slide shows on the 2015 results.
The workshop I delivered in 2014 is online since Jan. 2015
A miraculous set of tiles
Patchwork by Marijke Maris-Baan
Heptagon construction
A method to construct a near-regular heptagon now published on this site
Result of drawing competition
6 July 2014. The drawing cmpetition was won by José Bradamonte.
Students finished mosaic design course
A group of about 20 students finished the lesson strand on Persian style mosaics in the beginning of may 2014. You can find some impressions of their activities here
View their endresults here
Result of pre-study
Article published
2014, March.
My article 'Learning Geometry by Designing Persian Mosaics' is published in issue nr. 100 (March 2014) of the Canadian journal 'For the Learning of Mathematics'.
At the flm-website you can find an Abstract.
Examples of basic patterns
New pattern design
Click on the picture below to find a series of patterns with octagons
Workshop 1&2 Feb. 2014
The workshop held on Texel was attended by 13 people in total. Among them: a furniture maker, a designer of lamps, quilters, painters and teachers. See the photo-impression of the workshop
Article in local newspaper Texel
This article (text and photo Pip Barnard) is about my fascination for Islamic geometrical ornamentation and how it can be used in (mathematics) education.
Article in Dutch newspaper
An article about the artwork by Maria Roelofsen and myself was published in the Dutch newspaper 'Reformatorisch Dagblad' on 30 december 2013. (Text Janneke van Reenen-Hak, Photo's Sjaak Verboom)
Publication in dutch magazine 'Experiment NL'
In this magazine on dutch Scientific research an article was published about my work. All those who have a subscription of 'Quest' received this magazine. Four pages with beautiful illustrations!
International workshop on Islamic geometric design Istanbul
At the Design Center of Istanbul a six-days congres was organized with lectures and workshops delivered by experts in this field. Incredibly inspiring!
Conference Isfahan, Iran
May 2013. A three day conference for mathematicians and artists on geometric Islamic patterns was held. Lots of inspiring workshops and lectures were delivered.
Workshop Leiden
Workshop for students, Institute for Studies of the Middle East, Leiden University, 27 march 2013
Contribution to piece of art
Lecture for maths teachers
During the conference for Maths teachers held december 18th 2012 at the Groningen University I gave a lecture about using islamic mosaics to teach geometry at all levels in secundary schools.
Article Published
June 2012.
In the review for Dutch mathematics teachers called 'Euclides' the article 'Designing Persian Mosaics in the Classroom. Students in the centre of a medieval design tradition' appeared (for the article in Dutch click here).
Maria completed 'the frog'
