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Russia's Conquering Zeros: Strength of lonely productivity

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Re: Russia's Conquering Zeros: Strength of lonely productivity

#11

Post by [deleted] »

tokenadult wrote: post #6
ronnier wrote: post #4

Through this article I learned of Israel Gelfand, who died October 5, 2009. RIP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Gelfand

I didn't realize Israel Gelfand had just died. He is by far my favorite author of mathematics textbooks. (I even use his photograph as my avatar on the first website where I used the screenname tokenadult.) His book Algebra http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Israel-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773 is an inspirational example of how to make a textbook both humorous and challenging, and is the start of a great series of textbooks on…

[deleted]

Re: Russia's Conquering Zeros: Strength of lonely productivity

#12

Post by ujnubub »

ronnier wrote: post #4

Through this article I learned of Israel Gelfand, who died October 5, 2009. RIP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Gelfand

His biog says he skipped high school and went straight to grad school - that also wouldn't be possible here. He would need the correct number on his "key stage 3 year 11" exams to be entered into the computer before he could be allowed to do key stage 12 exams.

Strange how we supposedly won the cold war but the losers system seems to have been adopted.

We have had to stop accepting child geniuses into our maths dept because anybody that works with under 18s (even escorting them on a campus tour for an open day) now needs extensive police checks - 'to protect the children'.

Re: Russia's Conquering Zeros: Strength of lonely productivity

#13

Post by jfarmer »

ujnubub wrote: post #12
ronnier wrote: post #4

Through this article I learned of Israel Gelfand, who died October 5, 2009. RIP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Gelfand

His biog says he skipped high school and went straight to grad school - that also wouldn't be possible here. He would need the correct number on his "key stage 3 year 11" exams to be entered into the computer before he could be allowed to do key stage 12 exams. Strange how we supposedly won the cold war but the losers system seems to have been adopted. We have had to stop accepting child geniuses into our maths dept…

Searching Google, I assume you're Australian? I don't know what "stage 12 exams" are.

In the US it's quite possible for a child gifted in mathematics to skip all sorts of things. My third year of college I taught 11th graders the subject I had just covered the previous quarter, Algebraic Topology, and also the theory of computation.

The 9th and 10th graders in the program were learning linear algebra and Scheme (the programming language).

It's weird to be in a room full of people who are in high school and are approximately 100x better at the subject you're studying.

Re: Russia's Conquering Zeros: Strength of lonely productivity

#14

Post by Ixiaus »

ramanujan wrote: post #2

Andrew Wiles worked on Fermat's last theorem for six years in complete secrecy while he was at Princeton. Thus it's simply not true that isolated concentration is not possible in the American math world.

Isolated concentration is an issue for more than just mathematicians... Everyone needs to serve their basic survival needs (food, sleep, sex) before focus on abstract subjects can take place; isolated concentration is a theme for anyone that enjoys something abstract only for the sake of itself.

This can include computer scientists, scientists, astronomers, philosophers, mathematicians, &c... The need for psychic solitude is common amongst thinkers in general and it is difficult to achieve it within the society we are in; particularly so when what you love to do is also your primary income generator. Hence why you see many table waiting programmers or chefs that love to do math at night.

Re: Russia's Conquering Zeros: Strength of lonely productivity

#15

Post by ujnubub »

jfarmer wrote: post #13
ujnubub wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His biog says he skipped high school and went straight to grad school - that also wouldn't be possible here. He would need the correct number on his "key stage 3 year 11" exams to be entered into the computer before he could be allowed to do key stage 12 exams. Strange how we supposedly won the cold war but the losers system seems to have been adopted. We have had to stop accepting child geniuses into our maths dept…

Searching Google, I assume you're Australian? I don't know what "stage 12 exams" are. In the US it's quite possible for a child gifted in mathematics to skip all sorts of things. My third year of college I taught 11th graders the subject I had just covered the previous quarter, Algebraic Topology, and also the theory of computation. The 9th and 10th graders in the program were learning linear algebra and Scheme (the…

UK - I was making an ironic point that the name of the tests seem to change and get more 'bureaucratic speak' every year.

Under a soviet centralised government system there was apparently more freedom to teach to the student's abilities than in the free world - where everything must match upto the central government stanardized testing quango.

Re: Russia's Conquering Zeros: Strength of lonely productivity

#16

Post by mnemonicsloth »

andreyf wrote: post #3

a culture that thrived on rhetoric and fear Not any less than the Cold War culture did here. From my experience, citizens of the Soviet Union were a lot more cynical and jaded regarding their governments' fear mongering than their American counterparts. ...all this made mathematicians suspect Math, suspect? Because it challenged Stalinism? This is nonsense.

Not any less than the Cold War culture did here.

My family name is Polish, which was as good as Russian to the average American in the early 1950s. I grew up hearing stories about Cold War discrimination from my grandparents. That sort of paranoia is un-American. It shouldn't happen here.

But there were deeper reasons for the paranoia that settled over the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and pretending that some kind of parity exists between the two is the height of college-campus solipsism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulag_Archipelago

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