Timeline for What's a mathematician to do?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 28 at 6:32 | history | edited | Martin Sleziak | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
http -> https (the question was bumped anyway)
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| Mar 11, 2019 at 11:40 | comment | added | 11684 | @akvadrako Dr. Thurston was a professor of both mathematics and computer science so I don’t think he lacked this understanding. I cannot read either of your minds but might it be the case Dr. Thurston was thinking of machine code (binary) and you of higher-level languages (which one might reasonably call humanised binary)? Even in higher level languages, much like the Chinese Room argument, does a human executing an integration algorithm by hand understand the mathematical concept? | |
| Oct 29, 2017 at 19:31 | comment | added | akvadrako | "Dehumanized mathematics would be more like computer code, which is very different." It would be closer to the truth to call it humanized mathematics. | |
| Aug 22, 2012 at 22:39 | comment | added | Suresh Venkat | This seems like an ideal counterpoint to Hardy's Lament. I'm calling it Thurston's Paean :). Seems poignant now that he has passed. | |
| May 31, 2011 at 14:46 | comment | added | John Sidles | Please let me join the chorus of praise for Thurston's essays! A personal favorite is Thurston's wonderful Foreword to Mircea Pitati's collection "The Best Writing on Mathematics 2010". The Foreword begins "Mathematics is commonly thought to be the pursuit of universal truths" ... (Google Books will find the phrase). Then Thurston's essay goes on to argue that mathematics is much more than that. | |
| Oct 30, 2010 at 17:10 | comment | added | Bill Thurston | @J.M, @Harrison Brown, thanks for the comments. I try to write what seems real. By now, I have no cause to fear how I will be judged, which makes it much easier for me. It's gratifying when my reality means something to others. | |
| Oct 30, 2010 at 10:43 | comment | added | Harrison Brown | @J.M. Thematically this is similar to a (much longer) essay Dr. Thurston wrote several years ago, which I highly recommend: arxiv.org/abs/math/9404236 Actually, I may as well take the opportunity for a personal remark: Dr. Thurston, thank you so much for writing that essay. It's had an incalculable effect on how I view myself as a mathematician, and it's one of those papers that I've read and re-read "until the pages fell off." Really, thanks. | |
| Oct 30, 2010 at 3:03 | comment | added | J. M. isn't a mathematician | Thank you very much for your short essay; it looks like something a mathematician wrote from the heart, and I feel slightly more appreciative of mathematics than before after reading it. | |
| Oct 30, 2010 at 2:55 | history | answered | Bill Thurston | CC BY-SA 2.5 |