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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

#431

Post by dkislyuk »

mabbo wrote: post #341
data_maan wrote: post #290

Regarding Zhang's age: Most Fields medalists these days are very close to exceeding 40 years. Wiles himself just a special silver medal, because of that - which I think is outrageous age discrimination. Mind you he didn't get the silver medal because his results were a bit less spectacular than those of the winners, but rather they were so groundbreaking he couldn't be ignored, but because he was just over 40 they ha…

My understanding is that the Fields medal was always meant to be awarded to someone young and on their way up. But then it became the medal, the Nobel prize of math. Maybe we just need a new Nobel in math.

The hope is that the Abel Prize becomes the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics", as it is directly modeled after it.

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

#432

Post by romwell »

oefrha wrote: post #340
romwell wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 [...] 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, statistic…

> undergraduates are still producing new results, every year, in numerous REU programs around the US alone. Speaking as a former undergraduate math student producing “new” results in REU programs, all but a few of these results are completely negligible. There’s still a genius here and there though.

The same can be said about the entire field of mathematics and science in general.

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

#433

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

sdenton4 wrote: post #273
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another approach to the finite-mathematician-lifespan problem might be to develop new foundations that are closer to the edge. I expect there's a logical universe in which sets are bizarre and hard to construct but objects which would take a modern mathematician years to grok are convenient and simple to work with.

My favorite thought game along these lines is imagining an alien civilization where permutations are the fundamental object instead of the natural numbers.

Maybe food is plentiful enough that they never need to bother with its quantity, but there's some strobing energy source in their environment which periodically walks important chemicals through an ultimately cyclical series of states.

So like, the food is poisonous on strobes 3 and 8 of a 14 strobe cycle, and understanding that is the key to staying alive in their environment.

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

#434

Post by number_man »

m_nyongesa wrote: post #376
rutgersnj22 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you got to read this article from his sister: https://zhishifenzi-com.translate.goog/depth/character/480.h...

Thanks for that link. Wish I could read Mandarin Chinese so I could read the original too. Clearly a flawed person. Not sure why he blew off his family so hardcore for so many years. Too bad to hear he was arrogant as a kid too, although a lot of smart kids are. Some of them turn out to be Peter Thiel, luckily this guy just wanted to work on math. Anyway, I wish he had been better to his parents. On the other hand, h…

Yitang never publicly mentioned this but he was likely granted a green card under the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992. He was also involved with groups that supported democratic movement in China. This explains why he was unable to visit when his father passed away, and the obstacles he faced when he attempted to apply for Chinese visa after becoming a US citizen. He simply would not have been allowed to enter China had he not made the twin prime breakthrough. It was quite fortunate that in the end he was able to visit his mom just a few months before she passed away.

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

#435

Post by number_man »

rutgersnj22 wrote: post #425
m_nyongesa wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for that link. Wish I could read Mandarin Chinese so I could read the original too. Clearly a flawed person. Not sure why he blew off his family so hardcore for so many years. Too bad to hear he was arrogant as a kid too, although a lot of smart kids are. Some of them turn out to be Peter Thiel, luckily this guy just wanted to work on math. Anyway, I wish he had been better to his parents. On the other hand, h…

What the article doesn't say is the reason why Yitang would not come back visit his family. Not sure if it is his own decision (makes sense as he lost connection with his family for many years) or some political reason (China doesn't allow him to go home).

Thanks for the link. It was indeed a very touching story. Considering his involvement with the pro-democracy group, it is most likely he wasn't allowed to go back to China. Of course this cannot be mentioned in an article published in China.

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

#436

Post by robertlagrant »

n4r9 wrote: post #430
robertlagrant wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The former, yes.

It's interesting that some people find that way easier to remember. For me, multiplying out the terms seems faster, probably only because I've practised so many times in my life that I can picture the algebra in my head. It also seems more general, as it's a technique which you have to know anyway. I guess it comes down to being more geometrically minded vs algebraically minded. School should try to cater to both!

I wouldn't use it to calculate, but I would use it to explain why the calculation is what it is.

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

#437

Post by arjmandi »

bigbacaloa wrote: post #265
forkLding wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be noted that Zhang was a math prodigy when he was young, around 13 years old, however because of the Cultural Revolution in China, school education was stopped for a decade and his parents were purged and he was sent down to the countryside so he could not study at school but was forced to work in the fields and factories as re-education. It was only a decade later that he managed to get into university be…

The professional math world is full of smart but delusionally ambitious people who do things like focus all their energy on the Jacobian conjecture and the Riemann hypothesis. Most crash out never finishing their doctorates (because these problems are too hard and working on them does not provide what it takes to survive professionally). Zhang is an example of such a person. What is very unusual about him is not that…

He had a talk three days ago, explaining his thesis where he remarked: “When the paper was posted online just a few days ago, many people who don’t focus on mathematics didn’t understand it, thinking that it was the Landau-Siegel zeros conjecture solved, and some even thought that it proved the Riemann Hypothesis is wrong. Actually, I don’t have this ability. I only partially solve the Riemann hypothesis within a certain range. If I say I overturned Riemann Hypothesis, few people would believe it.”[1]

Maybe he loves what he's doing and that's the root of being stubborn and "genuinely oblivious to ordinary material feedback". Although love or passion can be overrated or too general to describe his attitude toward problem-solving, I think people can't be just stubborn, there's a drive that holds them to a higher standard.

[1]https://pandaily.com/mathematician-yitang-zhang-confirms-par...

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

#438

Post by novalis78 »

nerdbert wrote: post #199
novalis78 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where longevity research a la Harold Katcher comes in and allows for super centenarian geniuses to shape the future of humanity.

But what if there are necessary prerequisites for making significant advances in longevity, which themselves are so complex that they require more than a human lifespan to master? We could be at a dead end unless the computers start doing the work. And even then, perhaps the same impediment applies to the development of an AI that can bootstrap other AIs into getting the job done.

Harold Katcher: “The Illusion of Knowledge”.

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

#439

Post by x0x0 »

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #405
arrow7000 wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you're deriving satisfaction out of. That the market prevented someone from being able to earn a living and fulfilling their potential at the same time? I'm genuinely confused

I don't believe there's enough data in the original comment to assume that the market prevented them from being able to fulfill their living working with physics. It said they could make more money running a restaurant. If that it is the case they could not earn a living at all, and it's due to discrimination, which I asked about, then I agree it's not good. But if it's the case they could make a living in physics bu…

It's late, but he made poverty wages as an adjunct.
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