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Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

quantamagazine.org

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Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#341

Post by herodoturtle »

silvestrov wrote: post #208
herodoturtle wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My class valedictorian went on to become a doctor and while that is certainly impressive to me, there are many doctors and he practices (like almost every other doctor) and isn’t pushing the boundaries of medical science. You seem like someone who thinks things through, so I suspect you’ll know what I’m about to say, but given the sentiment of your comment, I think it’s worth explicitly sharing this: The fact that…

He isn't saying that being a doctor isn't great. He is saying that the people who add most value to science isn't always the ones who are at the top of the hierarchy in the school system. Performing well in school is like a F1 racing car: very fast, but can only go on paths very well trodden already, i.e. paved road.

Please excuse my misinterpreting OP’s comment, and thank you for clarifying.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#342

Post by MisterBastahrd »

babyent wrote: post #5

That was a fun read. What really stuck out to me was how R failed in a bunch of other subjects except math because he wasn’t interested in them. I know society and norms expect students to learn all these other subjects. But what if those just aren’t interesting to someone? I wonder how many geniuses we skip on because doing the chores of homework and getting through boring classes is busywork and memorization for th…

Meanwhile, I'd be working a backhoe in the middle of nowhere Louisiana if someone hadn't put books in my hands and forced me to read them under penalty of failure. Standards aren't standards because they're fun. They're standards because you need them to have fully functioning, working societies.

The US political system is currently in a state of utter dysfunction because people have decided that facts "just aren't interesting."

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#343

Post by gen_greyface »

cubefox wrote: post #317
gen_greyface wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see why this is being pointed out? > People from a higher caste tend to have higher IQ, >> People from a higher caste tend to have better access to resources, also a >Mankind Quarterly, a known fringe Far-right Racist publication. for fellow readers see [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mankind_Quarterly

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Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#345

Post by redbell »

babyent wrote: post #5

That was a fun read. What really stuck out to me was how R failed in a bunch of other subjects except math because he wasn’t interested in them. I know society and norms expect students to learn all these other subjects. But what if those just aren’t interesting to someone? I wonder how many geniuses we skip on because doing the chores of homework and getting through boring classes is busywork and memorization for th…

> People like R would be lost in the sea of averages because their genius would be kept shut by norms.

I have a family member who scored perfectly in math on the final exam of middle school but failed other subjects so badly that he couldn't advance to high school. What frustrated us even more was that the next year, he achieved a perfect score in math again but still failed overall, leaving him no choice but to drop out of school.

This story has stuck with me for years, highlighting how our education system focuses solely on maintaining an overall average score above a certain threshold without considering how individual subjects are mastered.

I can’t help but think that if he had been allowed to pursue mathematics, he might have accomplished something great. It’s really disheartening.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#347

Post by willy_k »

datavirtue wrote: post #319
willy_k wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well assuming we’re talking about Elon Musk, he has admitted to using prescription Ketamine for depression, which seems to have a negligible effect on cognition for therapeutic use

Interesting, I have seen some pretty scary interviews with Elon. If I had noticed a family member acting the same way I would have taken them to the ER.

Specifics? I haven’t seen him do anything worse than be overly blunt.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#348

Post by aguaviva »

ImHereToVote wrote: post #277
aguaviva wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the groups the article refers to are quite marginal, have no influence in government, are a certainly not "great friends of the Western establishment". Basically a propaganda piece, designed to push your buttons. And not surprisingly, published originally in RT.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/380483-congress-bans-arms...

No one has time to follow your random links. If you can't put what you have to say about a topic in your own words -- then you don't have anything to say.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#349

Post by datavirtue »

kennedywm wrote: post #27
makeitdouble wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what effects do you expect from that on a societal scale in the long term (at least 3,4 decades) ? For instance we banned meth and other drugs that have tremendous productivity effects at the expense of the individual and how we had to deal with them, so it's not a rhetoric question.

We didn’t fully ban them. We just prescribe them to anyone a doctor decides has ADHD.

Don't forget the military. Go pills.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#350

Post by n4r9 »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #335
mangodrunk wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ramanujan is obviously very gifted and was able to do exceptionally well given his circumstances, but to put him higher than those that you listed is wrong to me. There are many more mathematicians who solved problems that have more impact and those that started new branches of math. Ramanujan is overrated in my opinion.

I couldn't comment on the impact of his work, which anyways is evidentially still unfolding, but the WAY he seems to have worked is just bizarre - coming up with these deep baffling series formulae offered without proof. His mind seems to have worked in an extraordinary way.

It's true that the unconscious way he came about his theorems puts him in a different category to other famous names. But I wouldn't rank him as highly as Von Neumann. That man made groundbreaking results in the foundations of mathematics, pure and applied mathematics, early computer science, quantum mechanics, economics, and more. I think Von Neumann might arguably be the most significant genius of the 20th Century, paralleled in history only perhaps by the likes of Newton and Leibniz.

Einstein made a few extremely valuable insights in theoretical physics, but I'd say the sheer breadth of comparable work that Von Neumann did across multiple fields makes him more outstanding.

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