Sunday, November 05, 2006
JSH: Math is cruel
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.
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.
# posted by James Harris @ 15:29 
