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Fully agree (I am a mathematician). People believe scientists based on authority arguments. The alternative would be to believe them because they validated thei
by xorand 7y ago
Fully agree (I am a mathematician). People believe scientists based on authority arguments. The alternative would be to believe them because they validated their work. Even among scientists, this is a very hard thing to do. Among mathematicians is close to impossible. The solution agreed since some decades is peer review, but peer review != validation.
- xorand 7y agoAs an extreme example about what people believe based on authority arguments, consider the case of a deep mathematician (Dan Barbilian) who was also a great hermetic poet (pen name Ion Barbu). I used Google Translate :) (and some pondering) to turn one of his most famous poems into English. The literary authority claims that the poem is about the poetic art, while a mathematician would think it is about a Fourier transform (noncommutative, see the "groups of water", SL(2)?). Here is the translation of the poem Ion Barbu, Din ceas dedus: From the clock, down the depth of this calm peak, Passed through the mirror into blessed azure, Tailoring on the crushing of the aggressive herds In groups of water a second, purer game. Latent nadir! The poet raises the sum Of spreading harps lost into reversed flight. The song exhausts: as deep as the sea bears Its jellies, from under the green bells.