From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/5346 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Joyal=2C_Andr=E9?= Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: Dangerous_knowledge Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:03:07 -0500 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Joyal=2C_Andr=E9?= NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1260494295 7041 80.91.229.12 (11 Dec 2009 01:18:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:18:15 +0000 (UTC) To: "John Baez" , Original-X-From: categories@mta.ca Fri Dec 11 02:18:08 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from mailserv.mta.ca ([138.73.1.1]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NIu8v-0007tP-C5 for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:18:01 +0100 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1NItd5-0002q8-7X for categories-list@mta.ca; Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:45:07 -0400 Thread-Topic: categories: Re: Dangerous knowledge Thread-Index: AcpzrP9jt2wPNMZwRRaSka3JVOm4GQGFJ63k Original-Sender: categories@mta.ca Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:5346 Archived-At: Dear John, you wrote: > 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. Perhaps, a better and more exciting model for the youngster=20 is Richard Feynman, a "genious" with common sense: http://www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/cargocul.htm Best, Andr=E9 -------- Message d'origine-------- De: categories@mta.ca de la part de John Baez Date: mar. 01/12/2009 21:16 =C0: categories@mta.ca Objet : categories: Re: Dangerous knowledge =20 The BBC wrote: In this one-off documentary, David Malone looks at four brilliant >> mathematicians - Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt G=F6del 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/ ]