Saturday, June 03, 2006
JSH: Authority problem
There are authority figures that say my mathematical ideas are crap and against those authority figures, I have mathematical proof.
The problem is that even those of you who have some sense that something is wrong here are likely to look around to see if anyone else is acting, looking to others to figure out what to do.
That is human nature.
So you can discount my prime counting function—following authority, looking for reaction from others—and ignore my innovative ideas for analysis, and see me as being the person who is asking for something from you—in the weaker position—who is being humiliated by people with power.
But, if I end the situation, I create bigger problems, so I am mulling this over. Thinking about it. Thinking about human psychology and the need to follow authority, even to death.
I have noted that mathematicians in "pure math" areas depend on the word of other people, and in fact, have nothing at all to back their work, except the word of other people because it is impractical and not testable in the real world.
That kind of structure creates a situation where people learn conformity, learn to go with the crowd, because math is then a democracy.
Your work is only as good as other people say it is.
I, on the other hand, come from a world of action, and practicality. I have my degree in physics—the hard world of science—and have plenty of accomplishments in the real world, where I do not have to give a damn about whether or not other people say those accomplishments are good or not.
I do not give a damn about the opinions of most people.
Those of you who are in "pure math" areas have nothing else.
Your entire careers are built on nothing but opinions—other people saying your work is correct.
I am not sure how to break through that reality, how to divorce you from your social world and get you to accept mathematical proof as something separate from the opinion of people.
So far so much has been dismissed by you people. From the concrete reality of my prime counting function, to the bizarreness of the journal implosion, and the simplicity of the work depending on the distributive property.
You have stayed with authority, like so many others before you, and I do not see why you would not stick with authority till the bitter end.
The problem is that even those of you who have some sense that something is wrong here are likely to look around to see if anyone else is acting, looking to others to figure out what to do.
That is human nature.
So you can discount my prime counting function—following authority, looking for reaction from others—and ignore my innovative ideas for analysis, and see me as being the person who is asking for something from you—in the weaker position—who is being humiliated by people with power.
But, if I end the situation, I create bigger problems, so I am mulling this over. Thinking about it. Thinking about human psychology and the need to follow authority, even to death.
I have noted that mathematicians in "pure math" areas depend on the word of other people, and in fact, have nothing at all to back their work, except the word of other people because it is impractical and not testable in the real world.
That kind of structure creates a situation where people learn conformity, learn to go with the crowd, because math is then a democracy.
Your work is only as good as other people say it is.
I, on the other hand, come from a world of action, and practicality. I have my degree in physics—the hard world of science—and have plenty of accomplishments in the real world, where I do not have to give a damn about whether or not other people say those accomplishments are good or not.
I do not give a damn about the opinions of most people.
Those of you who are in "pure math" areas have nothing else.
Your entire careers are built on nothing but opinions—other people saying your work is correct.
I am not sure how to break through that reality, how to divorce you from your social world and get you to accept mathematical proof as something separate from the opinion of people.
So far so much has been dismissed by you people. From the concrete reality of my prime counting function, to the bizarreness of the journal implosion, and the simplicity of the work depending on the distributive property.
You have stayed with authority, like so many others before you, and I do not see why you would not stick with authority till the bitter end.
# posted by James Harris @ 12:28 
