Saturday, August 19, 2006
JSH: Werid result on the social side
One of the things that supposedly protected from some lone person coming up with remarkable and powerful ideas, yet being ignored, was this supposed thirst for accomplishment from other people, like graduate students, or even undergrads.
Supposedly with the chance to step up and put your names in the history books, some one or more of you would go with the proof, and be willing to stand up against your society.
To date, from what I noticed, only one of you did—for a while—only to give in later.
We're talking about huge amounts of prestige, moving yourself rapidly up the ladder, and best of all, being someone who did a remarkable thing, went with the truth, and helped humanity learn a little more knowledge.
But with all the potential positives, you all ultimately held back, afraid of the negatives.
Terrified of stepping outside of your society and being excoriated, verbally abused for supporting ideas proven mathematicially, and so you all stood together, and the question I wonder about is, why?
Not going with the truth, you get a tremendous amount of pain. Your society gets torn apart.
Many of you who thought you were going to be mathematicians, will never be.
And many of you who call yourselves mathematicians, will soon be in a world which strips you of that label.
So, why?
With so many opportunities, so many times I left things dangling out there, with so many ways you could have grabbed things, done your own research and pushed forward into a brand new world, you ALL chose to go down together.
It is a mystery that tests my knowledge of human psychology. Yes I know about the power of authority figures. I also know about how hard it can be to step outside of your group.
But here, stepping outside could have meant prestige, wealth and fame, and NOT stepping outside could mean huge failure.
The best, simplest conclusion is that all of you concluded that the truth would not be able to win against the social pressure.
And that is remarkable. That is very remarkable. Many of you seem to be overly impressed with social power.
The next step then is to probe why. What circuitry inside your brains causes you ALL to make a very wrong choice, to overly admire or be afraid of something that is so easily broken.
Why aren't any of you logical?
Supposedly with the chance to step up and put your names in the history books, some one or more of you would go with the proof, and be willing to stand up against your society.
To date, from what I noticed, only one of you did—for a while—only to give in later.
We're talking about huge amounts of prestige, moving yourself rapidly up the ladder, and best of all, being someone who did a remarkable thing, went with the truth, and helped humanity learn a little more knowledge.
But with all the potential positives, you all ultimately held back, afraid of the negatives.
Terrified of stepping outside of your society and being excoriated, verbally abused for supporting ideas proven mathematicially, and so you all stood together, and the question I wonder about is, why?
Not going with the truth, you get a tremendous amount of pain. Your society gets torn apart.
Many of you who thought you were going to be mathematicians, will never be.
And many of you who call yourselves mathematicians, will soon be in a world which strips you of that label.
So, why?
With so many opportunities, so many times I left things dangling out there, with so many ways you could have grabbed things, done your own research and pushed forward into a brand new world, you ALL chose to go down together.
It is a mystery that tests my knowledge of human psychology. Yes I know about the power of authority figures. I also know about how hard it can be to step outside of your group.
But here, stepping outside could have meant prestige, wealth and fame, and NOT stepping outside could mean huge failure.
The best, simplest conclusion is that all of you concluded that the truth would not be able to win against the social pressure.
And that is remarkable. That is very remarkable. Many of you seem to be overly impressed with social power.
The next step then is to probe why. What circuitry inside your brains causes you ALL to make a very wrong choice, to overly admire or be afraid of something that is so easily broken.
Why aren't any of you logical?
# posted by James Harris @ 01:51 
