Timeline for Besides proving new theorems, how can a person contribute to mathematics?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 7, 2015 at 23:56 | comment | added | PixnBits | FWIW this question has been posed and answered in worldbuilding worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/6774 | |
| Jan 4, 2015 at 14:48 | comment | added | k.stm | Let us continue this discussion in chat. | |
| Jan 4, 2015 at 12:09 | comment | added | k.stm | @Ruud I’m not sure I want to have that discussion. I stated my point and explained it. Attacking a semantical misuse of words is perfectly valid. I already stated that I think “the chain ends before” and, yes, I don’t want to go into detail about where exactly it ends as there may be no exact point. As you said, philsophising about any boundary of what it means to contribute to mathematics only yields to quibbling, but that’s what pew did (in the comment). It’s like those fake arguments by induction, proving a single rice grain is a heap of rice by ever removing merely one grain from a heap. | |
| Jan 4, 2015 at 11:27 | comment | added | Ruud Helderman | @k.stm: About the drugs analogy, the thin line between socially accepted and intolerable is not written in stone (I live in the Netherlands ;). And neither is the point where the chain ends. OP mentioning auxiliary makes it even more open for broad interpretation. Pew made his point; where is yours? Your arguments so far were about semantics; please share your ideas where the chain ends. Though I must warn you: it can only lead to quibbling. | |
| Jan 4, 2015 at 10:05 | comment | added | k.stm | @Ruud I didn’t question that, still I wouldn’t say that cleaners are contributing to mathematics. It’s just not how you use the word “contribute” without getting quibbling. It’s like saying “Sure, I drink coffee a lot.” when asked “Do you do drugs?”. | |
| Jan 4, 2015 at 9:31 | comment | added | Ruud Helderman | @k.stm: At some point in the chain, cleaners are essential; 'civilization' will end without them, and consequently, so will mathematics. See also: linkedin.com/pulse/… | |
| Jan 4, 2015 at 8:03 | comment | added | k.stm | It ends even before the cleaning crew, I think. And I also think you are confusing obvious with vacuous statements. | |
| Jan 4, 2015 at 7:32 | comment | added | user139000 | @k.stm, rationalis: Does a mathematics professor's secretary contribute to mathematics? What about the cleaning crew that maintains the mathematical institute's building? Where does the chain end? It doesn't end. What is vacuous IMO are claims of the type "doctors save lives" – of course they do, but so do all those that work for them, and the suppliers of medical equipment, and indeed mathematicians. If one finds that one's talents are insufficient to contribute to mathematics directly, the next best bet is to keep the "system as a whole" running. | |
| Jan 4, 2015 at 5:21 | comment | added | rationalis | @k.stm I didn't downvote, but I agree that the answer isn't addressing the question being asked. While technically correct, it's a vacuous statement. By that argument, every medical doctor in the history of the world has contributed to every field and industry of the arts and sciences... | |
| Jan 3, 2015 at 21:08 | comment | added | k.stm | In no way I would count offering computation time or doing something vaguely productive as contributing to mathematics. Thus, I downvoted. (Actually, this is in my view the answer with the least relation to the question so far.) | |
| Jan 2, 2015 at 12:27 | history | answered | user139000 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |