|
|
Re: Math is cruel
Posted:
Nov 6, 2006 12:46 PM
|
|
David Moran wrote:
> <jstevh@msn.com> wrote in message
> news:1162754970.307432.325850@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> >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.
> >
> >
> > James Harris
> >
>
> Math is cruel if you don't know anything about it, like you. Tell me, why do
> you refuse to learn anything? Apparently, you like to be known as a
> crackpot.
Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.
>
> Dave
|
|
