Grothendieck and his work
Hoad, Phil. (2024, Aug. 31). ‘He was in mystic delirium’: was this hermit mathematician a forgotten genius whose ideas could transform AI – or a lonely madman? The Guardian. Online:https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/aug/31/alexander-grothendieck-huawei-ai-artificial-intelligence
An article about the work of Alexander Grothendieck, whose papers are only now coming to light and beginning to be explored. I am always on the watch for people who think outside the box, who for example don't believe that mathematics have to be restricted by our old thoughts of mathematics, or absolute laws like "you can't divide by zero." Grothendieck is like the Picasso of matrhematics; he can see things from all angles at once. But according to the article he spent almsot a decade consumed by the idea of evil and Satan's influence on the universe and in particular the people who loved him. In the minds of many, this disqualified him. That and the fact that he stopped communicating with other mathematicians, or considering their ideas. Now they are supposed to consider his?
I love the Guardian because you can count on it to reveal not only others' frustrations with him, but also the genuine possibility that he's like Einstein, the carrier of great wisdom into the modern world. Since Einstein, we've all been aware that Einstein was probably right, yet we weren't quite prepared to redo our entire way of thinking. So ok, no time is better than the present. If we have to do it, let's get this ball rolling. Maybe a good start is to unravel everything this guy wrote.
posted by tom @ 7:59 AM
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