From: John Baez <john.c.baez@gmail.com>
To: categories@mta.ca
Subject: Re: Dangerous knowledge
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 18:16:28 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <E1NFyeE-0005sO-Nx@mailserv.mta.ca> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <E1NF60Z-0006Ay-2g@mailserv.mta.ca>
The BBC wrote:
In this one-off documentary, David Malone looks at four brilliant
>> mathematicians - Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan
>> Turing - whose genius has profoundly affected us, but which tragically drove
>> them insane and eventually led to them all committing suicide.
>>
>
Jim Stasheff wrote:
At least the Turing implication is very misleading - see below.
>
It's also not true that George Cantor committed suicide!
And I would not call Ludwig Boltzmann a mathematician. I'd call him a
physicist.
But the documentary seems a bit more accurate than this summary.
And it could be good to have documentaries that sensationalize mathematics
and make it seem "edgy" and "dangerous". We oldsters can tut-tut about the
inaccuracies and lack of serious content, but as a kid I would have enjoyed
it - and if it makes one youngster pursue a career in mathematics instead of
crime, that may justify its existence.
Best,
jb
[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2009-12-02 2:16 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2009-11-29 23:31 Joyal, André
2009-11-30 16:51 ` Mike Stay
2009-11-30 23:37 ` Dana Scott
[not found] ` <B3C24EA955FF0C4EA14658997CD3E25E2159B5F8@CAHIER.gst.uqam.ca>
2009-12-02 4:03 ` Dangerous times Joyal, André
2009-12-01 1:40 ` Dangerous knowledge Alex Hoffnung
2009-12-01 14:26 ` jim stasheff
2009-12-01 14:30 ` Ronnie Brown
2009-12-01 2:32 ` jim stasheff
2009-12-01 15:13 ` Alex Hoffnung
2009-12-01 16:43 ` Robert Seely
2009-12-02 2:25 ` RE : categories: " Joyal, André
2009-12-02 17:27 ` Ronnie Brown
2009-12-01 3:59 ` Dangerous ignorance Joyal, André
2009-12-01 13:56 ` Dangerous knowledge Charles Wells
2009-12-02 2:16 ` John Baez [this message]
2009-12-06 18:46 ` Vaughan Pratt
2009-12-07 2:46 ` Joyal, André
2009-12-07 13:46 ` jim stasheff
2009-12-08 19:15 ` Vaughan Pratt
2009-12-07 14:13 ` A well kept secret Joyal, André
2009-12-08 17:31 ` Steve Vickers
2009-12-09 14:18 ` Charles Wells
2009-12-10 14:49 ` Paul Taylor
2009-12-11 1:44 ` Michael Barr
2009-12-12 0:13 ` jim stasheff
2009-12-13 3:17 ` Wojtowicz, Ralph
2009-12-13 7:01 ` Vaughan Pratt
2009-12-11 1:46 ` Tom Leinster
2009-12-11 6:51 ` Michael Fourman
2009-12-11 8:36 ` Greg Meredith
2009-12-12 19:00 ` Zinovy Diskin
[not found] ` <e3ef1bd7ee7e9e1e1ecdb201955e18f6@PaulTaylor.EU>
2009-12-10 15:51 ` RE : " Joyal, André
2009-12-13 3:30 ` Zinovy Diskin
2009-12-07 17:18 ` Dangerous knowledge Steve Vickers
2009-12-08 4:09 ` A well kept secret David Spivak
2009-12-12 15:57 ` jim stasheff
2009-12-08 5:23 ` Robert Seely
2009-12-09 16:12 ` Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh
[not found] ` <7b998a320912090812x60551840r641fe9feb75efaee@mail.gmail.com>
2009-12-09 17:02 ` Robert Seely
2009-12-10 18:03 ` Dangerous_knowledge Joyal, André
2009-12-01 0:29 Dangerous knowledge Mike Stay
2009-12-03 14:58 jim stasheff
2009-12-03 23:56 ` Eduardo J. Dubuc
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