4 ms·

Mathematician Eugenia Cheng: ‘Yes, I am an anarchist’

9 points by btat1 10y ago

TempleOS 10y ago
Theocracy with me as high priest and world temple tax. God says... dalmatians smooch's condescended Odysseus bo's'n's Erse's outbalancing chanticleer wedded bunches shoos Tijuana's howitzer's petitioning punishing Oberon weights have's exiguous foregather binomial Benghazi's quivers scrutiny's irritant humbugged Mandy numismatic disputations étude's decried lieutenant's You have a problem with authorty. You must bow your head to God. slave When you raise yer gun to shoot me with slavery, I nail you dead with divine justice and laugh.
cechner 10y ago
what is the point of this headline, other than to decieve? it is not the headline of the article and is not a quote from the text in the article edit: I hope I'm not just being a killjoy here - I actually thought this was going to be some kind of political article.
- 0xcde4c3db 10y ago
  You're not the only one. I was half hoping for some discussion of how mathematical theory illuminates, say, the writings of Bakunin or Goldman.
theoh 10y ago
The titles of her books are so childish. That's her prerogative, but it feels like a real "Two Cultures" situation: I wish Cheng or someone else would span recreational/popular math and serious culture where the world is not considered as a hilarious two-dimensional cardboard cut-out or slapstick prop.
- jonsterling 10y ago
  You (and I) are not in the target audience for those books. She does very serious mathematics, which should be defended; she gave a very nice talk on Trimble n-categories to my research group on Friday, for instance.
lochland 10y ago
Cheng's definition of anarchism is "not having rules imposed on you". I'm afraid this article leftist-triggered me.
ue_ 10y ago
As an anarchist myself, how I wish the article lived up to its title. Interesting nevertheless.
- mordant 10y ago
  Advocates of anarchy are invariably those least-equipped to survive it.
  - ue_ 10y ago
    Anarchy does not mean "anything goes", it is the rejection of the class system and systems of unjustified authority and people being free to make voluntary associations with the abolition of money, private property and implementation of direct democracy in those voluntary institutions. I'm not quite sure what you want to get at.
    - simonh 10y ago
      If people are forced not to be able to use money, I don't see how that's free. The reality is that most of the things Anarchists want to abolish, the vast majority of people of their own free will actually want to keep.
      - ue_ 10y ago
        >If people are forced not to be able to use money, I don't see how that's free. This along with other things are oft-repeated myths about Communism. The goal is to eliminate money by eliminating the need that creates it: that is, wage labour and artificial scarcity. You are free to use money. You are not free to exploit people. That is to say, you would not be allowed to profit by the work of others by collecting their surplus value. It is equivalent to stealing (unless both parties give informed consent). However there would be no need for anyone to engage in wage labour, because people would no lonver be forced to work for their survival.
        simonh 10y ago
Red_Tarsius 10y ago
Honestly, the article offers nothing of substance. It's a light piece designed to spread awareness about Cheng's upcoming book. http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html > "There’s only been one female winner of the Fields medal since it was first awarded in 1936 – Maryam Mirzakhani. Does maths suffer from an old boys’ club mentality?" > "I am happy to say I have not experienced that." You can clearly see the invisible hand of the Guardian trying to spin the narrative, hoping to score identity points out of the interview. Thankfully, she answers in a concise, drama-free manner. Still, the title they chose has nil to do with the piece.
Koshkin 10y ago
Catchy title, nothing more. On Cheng's part it was simply a joke about the mathematician's mind being similar to the mind of an anarchist. In fact, mathematics and anarchism do have something in common. It is being based on strict laws of logic. Anarchism is no joke! Problem is, while mathematics is extremely successful, anarchism will never succeed in achieving its goals. Its criticism of the modern technological society is based on what looks like a correct analysis of the effects it has on an individual and his freedoms. Again, problem is, for better or worse, the technological and scientific progress is irreversible, and there is nothing anarchists or anybody else can do about it.

9 points by btat1 10y ago

Theocracy with me as high priest and world temple tax. God says... dalmatians smooch's condescended Odysseus bo's'n's Erse's outbalancing chanticleer wedded bunches shoos Tijuana's howitzer's petitioning punishing Oberon weights have's exiguous foregather binomial Benghazi's quivers scrutiny's irritant humbugged Mandy numismatic disputations étude's decried lieutenant's You have a problem with authorty. You must bow your head to God. slave When you raise yer gun to shoot me with slavery, I nail you dead with divine justice and laugh.

cechner 10y ago

what is the point of this headline, other than to decieve? it is not the headline of the article and is not a quote from the text in the article edit: I hope I'm not just being a killjoy here - I actually thought this was going to be some kind of political article.

0xcde4c3db 10y ago
You're not the only one. I was half hoping for some discussion of how mathematical theory illuminates, say, the writings of Bakunin or Goldman.

theoh 10y ago

The titles of her books are so childish. That's her prerogative, but it feels like a real "Two Cultures" situation: I wish Cheng or someone else would span recreational/popular math and serious culture where the world is not considered as a hilarious two-dimensional cardboard cut-out or slapstick prop.

jonsterling 10y ago
You (and I) are not in the target audience for those books. She does very serious mathematics, which should be defended; she gave a very nice talk on Trimble n-categories to my research group on Friday, for instance.

lochland 10y ago

Cheng's definition of anarchism is "not having rules imposed on you". I'm afraid this article leftist-triggered me.

ue_ 10y ago

As an anarchist myself, how I wish the article lived up to its title. Interesting nevertheless.

mordant 10y ago
Advocates of anarchy are invariably those least-equipped to survive it.
- ue_ 10y ago
  Anarchy does not mean "anything goes", it is the rejection of the class system and systems of unjustified authority and people being free to make voluntary associations with the abolition of money, private property and implementation of direct democracy in those voluntary institutions. I'm not quite sure what you want to get at.
  - simonh 10y ago
    If people are forced not to be able to use money, I don't see how that's free. The reality is that most of the things Anarchists want to abolish, the vast majority of people of their own free will actually want to keep.
    - ue_ 10y ago
      >If people are forced not to be able to use money, I don't see how that's free. This along with other things are oft-repeated myths about Communism. The goal is to eliminate money by eliminating the need that creates it: that is, wage labour and artificial scarcity. You are free to use money. You are not free to exploit people. That is to say, you would not be allowed to profit by the work of others by collecting their surplus value. It is equivalent to stealing (unless both parties give informed consent). However there would be no need for anyone to engage in wage labour, because people would no lonver be forced to work for their survival.
      - simonh 10y ago

Red_Tarsius 10y ago

Honestly, the article offers nothing of substance. It's a light piece designed to spread awareness about Cheng's upcoming book. http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html > "There’s only been one female winner of the Fields medal since it was first awarded in 1936 – Maryam Mirzakhani. Does maths suffer from an old boys’ club mentality?" > "I am happy to say I have not experienced that." You can clearly see the invisible hand of the Guardian trying to spin the narrative, hoping to score identity points out of the interview. Thankfully, she answers in a concise, drama-free manner. Still, the title they chose has nil to do with the piece.

Koshkin 10y ago

Catchy title, nothing more. On Cheng's part it was simply a joke about the mathematician's mind being similar to the mind of an anarchist. In fact, mathematics and anarchism do have something in common. It is being based on strict laws of logic. Anarchism is no joke! Problem is, while mathematics is extremely successful, anarchism will never succeed in achieving its goals. Its criticism of the modern technological society is based on what looks like a correct analysis of the effects it has on an individual and his freedoms. Again, problem is, for better or worse, the technological and scientific progress is irreversible, and there is nothing anarchists or anybody else can do about it.