Sunday, July 29, 2001
Test of credibility
Would any of you agree that Fermat's Last Theorem is a famous enough math problem that ALL professional mathematicians should have at least heard of it?
Would any of you agree that a simple proof of it that primarily used secondary school algebra should be accessible to ANY professional mathematician?
Would any of you suppose that evidence that there was a simple proof of Fermat's Last Theorem might zip through the mathematical community like a thunderbolt?
Now what if that proof was correct, and even a kid with a calculator could test some of its predictions and see that?
Do ANY of you really believe that professional mathematicians would not know this?
Mathematics of all the disciplines demands our trust because its own practitioners tell us what's valuable in the field.
Sure, to a certain extent, say physicists and biologists, do the same, but then again, it's hard to not realize something is important in physics when it produces the nuclear bomb, or in biology when it brings in the possibility of human cloning.
Now you know a good reason for why Nobel did not create a prize for mathematics.
He realized that in a field where major results could lack practical application so that only its practitioners decide what's valuable, there was never a guarantee of TRUE value.
I'm just here with the proof, and you know what's truly sad?
DESPITE this post, we will all wake up to a world tomorrow where the math folks still deny the obvious truth, when they could just get together, see the obvious and then admit to the world…the truth.
But dammit, it's going to be like pulling teeth. But guess what?
God gave me all the tools necessary for that, so at some point I will stop hesitating.
Why do I hesitate?
Because I have a job and a mortgage and I'm not excited about doing things that may affect other people's families because if it were me I'd like to be given the benefit of the doubt myself. I would like ample opportunity to do my job before someone lowered the boom on me.
So I will give ample opportunity and this drama may continue for a while until I am told that I can give no more time.
And then I will not, and it will be over so fast that you will think you've come instantly to another world.
But if I have to force that, then it will be a world that some would rather not be in.
A world where their families may pay a price for them not doing their jobs.
And that's not what I want, so I will wait, and hope as long as I can, until I have to finish my job.
Would any of you agree that a simple proof of it that primarily used secondary school algebra should be accessible to ANY professional mathematician?
Would any of you suppose that evidence that there was a simple proof of Fermat's Last Theorem might zip through the mathematical community like a thunderbolt?
Now what if that proof was correct, and even a kid with a calculator could test some of its predictions and see that?
Do ANY of you really believe that professional mathematicians would not know this?
Mathematics of all the disciplines demands our trust because its own practitioners tell us what's valuable in the field.
Sure, to a certain extent, say physicists and biologists, do the same, but then again, it's hard to not realize something is important in physics when it produces the nuclear bomb, or in biology when it brings in the possibility of human cloning.
Now you know a good reason for why Nobel did not create a prize for mathematics.
He realized that in a field where major results could lack practical application so that only its practitioners decide what's valuable, there was never a guarantee of TRUE value.
I'm just here with the proof, and you know what's truly sad?
DESPITE this post, we will all wake up to a world tomorrow where the math folks still deny the obvious truth, when they could just get together, see the obvious and then admit to the world…the truth.
But dammit, it's going to be like pulling teeth. But guess what?
God gave me all the tools necessary for that, so at some point I will stop hesitating.
Why do I hesitate?
Because I have a job and a mortgage and I'm not excited about doing things that may affect other people's families because if it were me I'd like to be given the benefit of the doubt myself. I would like ample opportunity to do my job before someone lowered the boom on me.
So I will give ample opportunity and this drama may continue for a while until I am told that I can give no more time.
And then I will not, and it will be over so fast that you will think you've come instantly to another world.
But if I have to force that, then it will be a world that some would rather not be in.
A world where their families may pay a price for them not doing their jobs.
And that's not what I want, so I will wait, and hope as long as I can, until I have to finish my job.
# posted by James Harris @ 20:24 
