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Doron Zeilberger is a distinguished mathematician and you're taking his troll at face value. You needn't lecture him.
by danharaj 7y ago
Doron Zeilberger is a distinguished mathematician and you're taking his troll at face value. You needn't lecture him.
- mikorym 7y agoSo what is the point of his post then?
- danharaj 7y agoHe's a combinatorist. He's trolling mathematicians who are specialized in more abstract fields who often hold views of contempt for computational, concrete fields like combinatorics. One of the main themes of modern mathematics is the use of algebraic, numerical, and combinatoric invariants to characterize abstract mathematical objects such as spaces. Doron is dishing out their own medicine in this post. This is an essay that touches on similar themes with less snark and more context for people who aren't in the know: https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~wtg10/2cultures.pdf https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~wtg10/2cultures.pdf
- mikorym 7y agoWhereas the are such contemptuous people it is just as bad to have the converse. In my experience the median number theorist is like today's physicists in that they are resisting consolidation in favour of elaborateness. Traditionally, category theory was treated with much disdain especially by concrete mathematicians. The fact that hipsters now think category theory is cooler than combinatorics doesn't in my opinion warrant swaying again the other way—any kind of evangelisation is inherently fraught with personal agendas. It could be that the specific examples that he gave are really justified. But I don't really see the point of being a warrior for concrete mathematics or being a warrior for abstract mathematics. I don't even see the two as different fields rather different processes. And as I said earlier, I have found combinatorialists to be more contemptuous than category theorists, hipsters aside.