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Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

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Re: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

#161

Post by x0x0 »

ahzhou wrote: post #143
mabbo wrote: post #9

I'm not a mathematician, but the story of Yitang Zhang desperately makes me want this paper to be correct. > Prior to getting back to academia, he worked for several years as an accountant and a delivery worker for a New York City restaurant. He also worked in a motel in Kentucky and in a Subway sandwich shop. A profile published in the Quanta Magazine reports that Zhang used to live in his car during the initial job…

While not common, I know of other Chinese diaspora in North America with similar stories. Many graduates from post Cultural Revolution China left the country in 90's and found the language barrier (and accompanying discrimination) too high to overcome. The man delivering your fried rice might have a PhD.

An unfortunate parallel: the best physics professor (unfortunately, just an adjunct) I ever had was a Russian immigrant. He quit teaching to go run a blini restaurant because it paid way more :(

Re: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

#162

Post by mgfist »

pa7x1 wrote: post #78

Math used to be a young person game, but it now requires so much knowledge just to get to the frontiers of human knowledge, not to speak of making a dent into uncharted territory, that results are being obtained later and later in life. When mathematicians have had time to accrue sufficient knowledge while still being sharp enough to make the intellectual leap. The sad part is that as the trend continues we may reach…

One day we will be able to download knowledge to our computer-assisted brains, and math will become a young man's game again.

Re: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

#163

Post by s1artibartfast »

bdhe wrote: post #150
robomartin wrote: post #140

Quoted post unavailable.

> It's the old "I'm from the government and I am here to help" joke. What else is the government for? I understand it's a popular Reagan talking point but I don't really grok it. If you assume the govt doesn't work for us, particularly if you're in politics, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is probably not the best thread for a political discussion, but I will take a shot. Nobody disputes that governments should be a force for good. Government's obviously can do both good and bad. Many reason atrocities like the cultural revolution came of under the pretext of trying to help. If you think the government has veered into doing bad, it is natural to want to reform it and make it stop doing that. the talking point and metaphor simply conveys a belief that some of the governments work is bad and should be stopped. It's a lot more complicated, but that's the 5-year-old explanation of it

Re: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

#164

Post by mikeyouse »

gavagai691 wrote: post #80
kenjackson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm... thanks, it looks quite good. But why is streaming rental for 24 hours? Why can't we do rentals for two weeks for videos? Is there a good reason to make it so difficult to stream? I don't want to watch it a million times. I just want to make it through once, but it takes me several sittings typically to finish a movie.

I was thinking about watching this documentary two years ago. That sounds like the reason that I decided not to.

Looks like it's available on Archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/countingfrominfinityyitangzhanga...

Re: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

#165

Post by treeman79 »

bdhe wrote: post #150
robomartin wrote: post #140

Quoted post unavailable.

> It's the old "I'm from the government and I am here to help" joke. What else is the government for? I understand it's a popular Reagan talking point but I don't really grok it. If you assume the govt doesn't work for us, particularly if you're in politics, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The idea is that government is inherently bad. But no government is worse.

People in government will abuse their positions as much as possible.

So limiting government as much as possible is the goal.

Good example is pandemic. Governments saved a small number of people by collapsing economies. Quit possibly killing more people then were saved. There is a very good argument that the best thing governments could have done is “nothing”.

Re: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

#166

Post by wging »

robomartin wrote: post #140

Quoted post unavailable.

For anyone else who was curious: the Reagan version of this quote used "I'm", not "I am". https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/reagan-quotes... I mention this not to be nitpicky, but just because googling the quote with "I am" didn't work well.

Re: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

#167

Post by Armic »

pa7x1 wrote: post #78

Math used to be a young person game, but it now requires so much knowledge just to get to the frontiers of human knowledge, not to speak of making a dent into uncharted territory, that results are being obtained later and later in life. When mathematicians have had time to accrue sufficient knowledge while still being sharp enough to make the intellectual leap. The sad part is that as the trend continues we may reach…

There's a great SSC story about this concept: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/

Re: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

#168

Post by civilized »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #163
bdhe wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's the old "I'm from the government and I am here to help" joke. What else is the government for? I understand it's a popular Reagan talking point but I don't really grok it. If you assume the govt doesn't work for us, particularly if you're in politics, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is probably not the best thread for a political discussion, but I will take a shot. Nobody disputes that governments should be a force for good. Government's obviously can do both good and bad. Many reason atrocities like the cultural revolution came of under the pretext of trying to help. If you think the government has veered into doing bad, it is natural to want to reform it and make it stop doing that. the t…

Government that limits its own power by law is humanity's greatest political invention.

Anyone can make a government that sometimes does good. The challenge is to create a government that cannot do unfathomable evil.

Re: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

#169

Post by maegul »

pa7x1 wrote: post #78

Math used to be a young person game, but it now requires so much knowledge just to get to the frontiers of human knowledge, not to speak of making a dent into uncharted territory, that results are being obtained later and later in life. When mathematicians have had time to accrue sufficient knowledge while still being sharp enough to make the intellectual leap. The sad part is that as the trend continues we may reach…

> but it now requires so much knowledge just to get to the frontiers of human knowledge, not to speak of making a dent into uncharted territory, that results are being obtained later and later in life. When mathematicians have had time to accrue sufficient knowledge while still being sharp enough to make the intellectual leap. The sad part is that as the trend continues we may reach a point where a mathematician's intellectually productive life is not sufficient to contribute anything novel, statistically speaking.

IMO, an under appreciated dynamic across the board of human endeavours.

With increasing complexity comes the need for more time to understand and master anything.

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