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Re: JSH: Math is cruel
Posted:
Nov 5, 2006 3:01 PM
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jstevh@msn.com wrote:
> I think that the easiest way to ease some of you into accepting what
> has been happening for years with my research is to point out to you
> that math is cruel.
>
> I mean, most people kind of know this, as if you subtract money from
> your bank account, eventually you get to no money, but you need to eat?
> So what? The math doesn't care.
>
> You have so much money, subtract from that till you get zero, and it
> doesn't change the math so that you can feed yourself or your family.
>
> That is a very basic example that can give some insight into what has
> happened with much more advanced math ideas where mathematicians DID
> work around the math by simply choosing to ignore what is
> mathematically correct.
>
> I found this neat technique for factoring polynomials in this advanced
> way.
>
> But leaders in the field brushed past it to keep going as they had as
> the math is too cruel.
>
> It did not care about their families, or how they would survive in a
> world where their expertise was challenged.
>
> The math did not give a damn about their FEELINGS and the betrayal of
> their trust in thinking they had correct mathematical ideas before.
>
> The math is just cruel, so they decided to humanize it, by ignoring the
> mathematical truth.
>
> And they did so, and years later, human progress denied in number
> theory for still more years to add on top of the hundred plus that went
> before, they are still working to soften up the cruel side of
> mathematics.
>
> But math IS cruel.
>
> The consequences mount up even when you deny the truth, just like you
> can fantasize that you have more money in the bank than you do, but
> eventually you still run out.
>
> As mathematicians burn through all their resources and credibility to
> hold on to ideas that don't work--to soften mathematics--they run up
> against the inevitability of consequences.
>
> It is human nature to rail against cruel fate. It is human nature to
> push against the rules when they burn. It is human nature to deny
> truths that hurt.
>
> But it is reality that always wins in the end.
Gee, kind of quiet today. Maybe you should wait until
the Bears game is over to post your prattle.
>
>
> James Harris
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