Friday, September 04, 2009
JSH: Hard to explain
Web search results did help me a lot as I've been working my way through a fascinating situation that it seems has not occurred before in this particular way in human history. As of now I am dominant in quite a few topics on web search results while the mathematical community still is recalcitrant in acknowledging my research so that it appears that the old guard is determined to run full tilt into the currently unknown full power of our modern Internet.
Old against the new. That part is classic.
What is different in this case is the weirdness of such a sharp disparity in the reach I know I have from new technologies like the web, and the disdain, insults and continual talking down that still occurs in forums like this one.
At this point, for instance, my math blog is according to Google Analytics, which is important as of course I don't have the technology on my own to know so I rely on the cutting edge of our modern world, being visited every 30 days from 50+ countries. For a while that was 60+ countries, but for some reason it dropped recently, and for instance, was only 54 countries, or I should say, "countries/territories" as Google Analytics puts it, in the LAST 30 days.
For the year? 112 countries/territories. 1805 cities, around the world.
The distribution of hits that I see when I do the city counts looks like a miniature version—like a little fractal—of the hits that Google itself gets, and shows me on a daily basis the use of the Internet worldwide, roughly. So I know the top countries where there is the most Internet usage, just from looking at my own hits for my math blog.
Obviously then, I am disconnected from MUCH impact from insults from posters. They're like miscreants on the street in the little neighborhood in the bad section of the city, built in the valley, hollering up at the guy on the mountain, but I find them intriguing for various reasons. Their rationalizations interest me, and also despite my reach I am still hampered somewhat simply from being still this fringe figure because of the bizarre aspects of this saga.
The mathematical community refuses to acknowledge the importance of my research, and seems intent on letting me hammer at their prestige in a long, slow drawn out process.
But the world is already voting against academia—quietly, for the moment. Processes that before were probably mostly invisible when there was a major conflict of the more powerful new knowledge against old processes and ideas are now more visible—because of the Internet.
And it is all very hard to explain. Posters will probably reply to this post like they usually do with insult or whatever, but that is as irrelevant to this reality as if they were ranting at any world figure.
Of course, it is interesting to have a collection of such rants, for study later. And I like the perspective to wonder what these people are thinking. How important they think what they're doing is. How effective they think it is?
They are interesting enough for me to make posts like this one, as this forum is tiny compared to my reach in other areas. And I do try to be more careful as I tend to distort the normal flow on newsgroups like these, so I'm trying to take smaller steps, post more carefully, interfere less.
As you watch technology continue to evolve as we move further into the Information Age, you should know that I gain more tools. And I gain more ways to watch what is going on in the world, so your words mean less and less.
I don't care nearly so much about what you say, as why you say it. My efforts more often are about probing what is going on inside your brains than anything else.
I feel a continuing need to know, to understand.
Old against the new. That part is classic.
What is different in this case is the weirdness of such a sharp disparity in the reach I know I have from new technologies like the web, and the disdain, insults and continual talking down that still occurs in forums like this one.
At this point, for instance, my math blog is according to Google Analytics, which is important as of course I don't have the technology on my own to know so I rely on the cutting edge of our modern world, being visited every 30 days from 50+ countries. For a while that was 60+ countries, but for some reason it dropped recently, and for instance, was only 54 countries, or I should say, "countries/territories" as Google Analytics puts it, in the LAST 30 days.
For the year? 112 countries/territories. 1805 cities, around the world.
The distribution of hits that I see when I do the city counts looks like a miniature version—like a little fractal—of the hits that Google itself gets, and shows me on a daily basis the use of the Internet worldwide, roughly. So I know the top countries where there is the most Internet usage, just from looking at my own hits for my math blog.
Obviously then, I am disconnected from MUCH impact from insults from posters. They're like miscreants on the street in the little neighborhood in the bad section of the city, built in the valley, hollering up at the guy on the mountain, but I find them intriguing for various reasons. Their rationalizations interest me, and also despite my reach I am still hampered somewhat simply from being still this fringe figure because of the bizarre aspects of this saga.
The mathematical community refuses to acknowledge the importance of my research, and seems intent on letting me hammer at their prestige in a long, slow drawn out process.
But the world is already voting against academia—quietly, for the moment. Processes that before were probably mostly invisible when there was a major conflict of the more powerful new knowledge against old processes and ideas are now more visible—because of the Internet.
And it is all very hard to explain. Posters will probably reply to this post like they usually do with insult or whatever, but that is as irrelevant to this reality as if they were ranting at any world figure.
Of course, it is interesting to have a collection of such rants, for study later. And I like the perspective to wonder what these people are thinking. How important they think what they're doing is. How effective they think it is?
They are interesting enough for me to make posts like this one, as this forum is tiny compared to my reach in other areas. And I do try to be more careful as I tend to distort the normal flow on newsgroups like these, so I'm trying to take smaller steps, post more carefully, interfere less.
As you watch technology continue to evolve as we move further into the Information Age, you should know that I gain more tools. And I gain more ways to watch what is going on in the world, so your words mean less and less.
I don't care nearly so much about what you say, as why you say it. My efforts more often are about probing what is going on inside your brains than anything else.
I feel a continuing need to know, to understand.
# posted by James Harris @ 00:09 
