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Vladimir Voevodsky has died

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Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#51

Post by widdma »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #47
tuxguy wrote: post #18

Does anyone know what happened ? Was he sick ? Was it cancer ?

Can we not? Do you think that they would have wanted the thread about their death to be filled with speculation about whether he killed himself or drank himself to death? No one knows anything, and even if they did it would be impolite to offer up that information. He was a great mathematician. RIP.

I think if he did have mental health problems, like many others in the field, it's now more than ever to raise the point. If he didn't it doesn't hurt to raise the issue, because it is genuine.

If you suffer from anxiety and/or depression, there is help. Talk to someone. You're not alone, and you don't need to suffer alone.

Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#52

Post by tomhoward »

cft wrote: post #23
andrewflnr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're getting downvoted because putting forward suicide as an explanation without any evidence is, well, "bad taste" doesn't really cut it. If you're going to speculate about it, at the very least give some justification.

It's from a text from a friend who knew him, if that matters. We all got PhDs from the same school. I have been here for 6.8 years and in the last two I find myself going back to Slashdot more and more.

Your first comment didn't say anything about having a personal connection or any first-hand knowledge of the situation, so it was reasonable for people to consider the comment as empty, insensitive speculation.

There are valid grounds for wishing that HN was better than it is, but this case doesn't epitomise anything that is fundamentally wrong with HN; you could have done better in your initial comment, and then done better than to use it as an opportunity to take a swipe at the entire community.

For HN to be better, it relies on all of us to do our bit to make it better.

Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#53

Post by ninguem2 »

andrewflnr wrote: post #22
cft wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suicide? Edit: I wonder why it is getting downvoted? I am actually about to quit HN due to its increasingly oppressive PC culture.

You're getting downvoted because putting forward suicide as an explanation without any evidence is, well, "bad taste" doesn't really cut it. If you're going to speculate about it, at the very least give some justification.

On this reddit thread [1] there is a link to an interview that mentions mental illness and someone else mentions alcoholism. So, unfortunately, suicide is the most likely possibility. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/73ibgx/vladimir_voevo...

Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#54

Post by 35bge57dtjku »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #46
madez wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree politely. Even the death of a beloved person is not above the scientific method. One may choose not to investigate, but that is a personal decision. I don't see a problem if someone far away speculates. Also, I don't see a problem talking about these speculation. As long as speculations stay speculations in the absence of evidence and are discarded in front of conflicting evidence, it seems sound to me.

Nonsense. Someone died. This is disrespectful and distasteful. Elsewhere in the thread people are speculating he died of alcoholism. Just stop.

Your self-righteous indignation and attempting to police this whole comment page are at least as disrespectful and distasteful.

Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#55

Post by 35bge57dtjku »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #47
tuxguy wrote: post #18

Does anyone know what happened ? Was he sick ? Was it cancer ?

Can we not? Do you think that they would have wanted the thread about their death to be filled with speculation about whether he killed himself or drank himself to death? No one knows anything, and even if they did it would be impolite to offer up that information. He was a great mathematician. RIP.

No more than they'd want the thread full of your asinine PC policing when everyone else appears genuinely concerned and tasteful about those comments.

Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#56

Post by foo101 »

cft wrote: post #23
andrewflnr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're getting downvoted because putting forward suicide as an explanation without any evidence is, well, "bad taste" doesn't really cut it. If you're going to speculate about it, at the very least give some justification.

It's from a text from a friend who knew him, if that matters. We all got PhDs from the same school. I have been here for 6.8 years and in the last two I find myself going back to Slashdot more and more.

If you don't want to put some effort in writing a substantive comment, probably you should go back to Slashdot. Your first comment showed no effort in justifying your speculation with relevant evidence. The reason why I like HN so much and why I gave up Slashdot and Reddit in favor of HN is how I don't have to scroll down a list of funny or low-effort comments to find a few substantively written comments. The low funny-to-substantive ratio of HN is what attracts me to HN and I am glad that low-effort comments like yours are quickly downvoted.

Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#57

Post by robinhouston »

This interview (link below) gives some interesting insight into his work and motivations. It’s in Russian, but Google Translate does a pretty good job with it.

http://baaltii1.livejournal.com/198675.html

Among many other things, he describes some unusual experiences in 2006–7 that clearly had a powerful impact on his thinking:

[Translation by Google] “I had in a few months acquired a very considerable experience of visions, voices, periods when parts of my body did not obey me and a lot of incredible accidents. The most intense period was in mid-April 2007 when I spent 9 days (7 of them in the Mormon capital of Salt Lake City), never falling asleep for all these days.

Almost from the very beginning, I found that many of these phenomena (voices, visions, various sensory hallucinations), I can control. So I was not scared and did not feel sick, but perceived everything as something very interesting, actively trying to interact with those "creatures" in the auditorial, visual and then tactile spaces that appeared (themselves or by call) around me. I must say, probably, to avoid possible speculations on this topic, that I did not use any drugs during this period, tried to eat and sleep a lot, and drank diluted white wine.”

Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#58

Post by robotomir »

mathgenius wrote: post #39

The name Voevodksy comes from two old russian words: vodit, which means "to lead", and voena which means war. So, voevod, would mean something like "war leader", or general. (Source: russian friend that I just consulted.)

>old russian words

That word "voevoda" existed before Russians were even a thing.

Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#59

Post by carlob »

During grad school I had to spend a year at IAS, because my advisor was there on sabbatical.

The Institute is not very grad-student-friendly (by design): there are a lot of cultural and bureaucratic hurdles a student might find there, such as refusing any affiliation, both for visa and academic purposes, not offering proper office place, and a certain aloofness of the faculty.

My experience was a bit better than the norm at the then-new School for System Biology, but I have a lot of great memories of discussion with Voevodsky over lunch. He had found in me and another grad student from the same group two people interested in the use of computers in science, and he didn't care that we completely out of our depth discussing the foundations of mathematics. We were both just very interested in how computers were transforming science, and he kept telling us that the same revolution was going to happens for mathematics as well, despite the resistance of some of his colleagues.

These discussions sparked an interest I still have for proof verification, automatic theorem proving, and type systems.

Here's to hoping his legacy lives on and that the revolution he helped start brings on a new era in mathematics.

Re: Vladimir Voevodsky has died

#60

Post by dsacco »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #47
tuxguy wrote: post #18

Does anyone know what happened ? Was he sick ? Was it cancer ?

Can we not? Do you think that they would have wanted the thread about their death to be filled with speculation about whether he killed himself or drank himself to death? No one knows anything, and even if they did it would be impolite to offer up that information. He was a great mathematician. RIP.

> Can we not?

He was a great mathematician. But I'm still interested in how he died. So actually, can we? You're free not to participate in that which you find distasteful, but we're adults here.

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