Simulacrum0

i wish you well on rolling your own Physics. Its certainly straightfoward to implement formulas for kinematics/dynamics as you suggest, but like the first comment references, timesteps and stability are quite elusive to get manageable for varying amounts of moving objects. While stacking might be an isolated case, i could definitely see the scope expanding beyond initial estimates for 'final tuning'. Bullet does a good job w/ stacked cubes and i'd expect PhysX to be equally proficient.

By oldest, probably the Foley "Principals of Graphics" or the later, slimmer Watt "3D Graphics" are ~'30years'+

If you're considering later books, probably Perlin/Musgrave/etc.'s "Textures & Modelling", Christer Ericcson's "Physics/Collision", and Pharr/Humphries "Physically Based Rendering" are probably 3 foundational books that are quite relevant to modern programming/simulation.

How we expand the art of "describing behaviors to our machines" from < 1% of the world ( who can program ) to the other 99%...

While every business's decision on 'reinvest' vs payout should be unique to their needs, do consider what degree of tax-writeoffs/claimed-losses/depreciations you're likely to gain from 'reinvesting'. Some Gov't rules, such as in the USA, are very favorable towards doing so.

Good hunting+

i am heartened to read your question...regardless of choice/outcome, at least you're thinking about the pros/cons of the topic...When it comes to lifeforms that threaten (Mosquitos, Ticks ) or damage possessions (Rodents-wrecking or Rhinos-charging your car ), instincts often kick in for good survival-reasons and yet our compassion is often the highlight of our species.

If we ever do meet extraterrestrial beings, i hope they treat us better than we do to our animals/ecosystems ( in general )...or at least, as the now-ancient Perry-Farrell song goes "we'll make great pets" ( give us Food, Drugs, Games & someone 'WRONG' on the internet and i doubt we'd even notice )

;)

For pure psychological, "Audition" is horrifying...a japanese horror story without any supernatural elements...

Interesting question on why tech X and not Y. Regardless of superiority or prior-existence arguments, such as Betamax vs VHS, Null-terminated-Strings vs Length-included, etc., determining a dominant tech is usually about the human experience, imho, such as packaging, marketing, buzz and less about the details of actual use. Seems like art beats tech, like book-cover beats book-contents or outer-beauty beats inner-persona in choices. So perhaps this is more primate-legacy-choosing than actual merit-based choosing??

- Post Apocalyptic Rebuilding of Human Society guided by history's narratives.

- Rearing of Post-human, A.I. minded robots to be a 'better-people' and how they, in turn, grow beyond us and yet course correct our ego & biological shortcomings.

- Drone swarms negating conflict: No human-aimed weapons, no melee combat, just instance particle-sized drones threatening instance death for any unambiguos attempt to use violence. Not written as a dystopia but an actual 'violence/force'-free existence where persuasion and peer validation of facts & arguments resolve conflicts.

Ray Tracing ( specifically Path Traced GI ) is fairly simple given the complexity of 'reality' and light bouncing off or through various materials. The actual algorithms used to bounce/scatter/gather light aren't complex.

Symmetric Encryption is usually a couple matrix multiplies over blocks of data...giving a lot of complextity from a few simple constants and arithmetic ops.

Sounds awful. Explaining clear details & timeline to the Police or FBI sounds important. If you get dismissed, try again at a different time. Hang in there.

As disaffected as it is, i think Neal Stepheson's "Diamond Age" has programming book "backstory" that carries weight many years later...sort of a 3rd decade insight class of wisdom...

YES

Would love to help, but memory of Sept. 1992 seems blurry at best. Why that date?

i'm 48 and have run 2 startups over the past 25 years...it can be an intense roller coaster of a journey and i empathize with your struggle. May you find what you are seeking and may you find balance between your mental health and entrepreneurial goals. None of this is easy nor guaranteed. Having a steady income, safety-fund, and building towards retirement certainly is a safe and worthy path. So is following your dreams and working towards 'creating' something profitable or impactful. Hope you can find both;

Sorry to read of your struggles. i nearly skipped to reading the next item of interest but i recall how important it can be to echo "hang in there, as bad as things get, know that life is cyclical and it will get better, given time, perseverance, and reflecting"...aka 'always darkest before dawn'.

I cannot advise on the job, but the sooner you can communicate your burnout/work-behind status, certainly the better to improving your day.

Javascript will be with us for a long time ( the new BASIC?)

C99: while there is much to applaud in Rust and Swift, but i doubt C will be displaced in the embedded space given the pace of embedded device development and scale of legacy libraries and investments.

Languages from Walled Gardens, even when open sourced, such as Microsoft/Unity & C#, Google & Go, Apple & Obj-C/Swift, etc., do not seem to expand far from their origins, and thus their fates seem entwined with their creator. Hard to call their futures, but i suspect the market will shift.

LLVM's intermediate language (IR) and Vulkan's SPIR-V, seem to underlie many other languages compiled outputs so i'd expect they will be with us for a long time as a validating, porting, and research standard.

Tax changes triggered a strong, negative impact here in CT., USA as it capped deductions from State Income Tax and Mortgage ( which covers my home office ). I hope lowering the corporate tax rate produces GDP growth, but that will take time to assess.