4 ms·

Is there any confirmation of this? It appears absolutely nowhere else on the web.

kick 7y ago
Mulcahy is a pretty reliable source, and that's definitely his twitter. In lieu of official confirmation, for the time being it seems like this is about as reliable as anybody could hope for.
inetsee 7y ago
The Princeton Department of Mathematics page doesn't seem to have anything about his passing. Edit: Of course it's the weekend; I should have realized that there will probably not be anything on that page before Monday. https://www.math.princeton.edu/people/john-conway https://www.math.princeton.edu/people/john-conway
- ColinWright 7y ago
  It's Easter weekend, there probably wouldn't be anything before Tuesday. I've commented elsewhere[0] on the connectedness and reliability of Colm, but people can always wait for confirmation via other sources before they choose to believe it. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22843577 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22843577
- wool_gather 7y ago
  Yes, I wouldn't necessarily expect the web site to be updated immediately, but I would think there would be a tweet from https://twitter.com/princeton https://twitter.com/princeton sometime today at least.
yamrzou 7y ago
The first who tweeted about this seems to be a french mathematician named Martin Andler : https://twitter.com/MartinAndler/status/1249021279660683265 https://twitter.com/MartinAndler/status/1249021279660683265. Also this tweet by the french Science Magazine "La Recherche" : https://twitter.com/maglarecherche/status/1249035954519773186 https://twitter.com/maglarecherche/status/124903595451977318...
dang 7y ago
I trust Colin's explanation of the source. It would be awful to have fed a mistake, but wonderful if the news turned out not to be true. People are posting such good comments about Conway that I wouldn't want to bury the thread. Best case scenario, we change the title to "John Conway has not died" and continue to celebrate him.
- ColinWright 7y ago
  Mulcahy writes of formal confirmation[0]: > Not yet. Three of the people who told me heard it from his ex wife Diana. Two knew it was imminent since he fell ill on Wednesday. Also[1]: > More emails from insiders are arriving regularly. One from a student of his. Etc. And[2]: > From 5 of his close associates ... [0] https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082939423559680 https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082939423559680 [1] https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082390854729730 https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082390854729730 [2] https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082119567138819 https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082119567138819 ================================= ================================= Added in edit: I've now had it confirmed in personal correspondence, but before it can be announced officially it needs to go through the Dean's Office, and it's a Holiday Weekend, so that won't be quick. It's reasonable for people to be sceptical, I don't have a problem with that.
  - agumonkey 7y ago
    thanks for the update
- wool_gather 7y ago
  Fair enough :)

kick 7y ago

Mulcahy is a pretty reliable source, and that's definitely his twitter. In lieu of official confirmation, for the time being it seems like this is about as reliable as anybody could hope for.

inetsee 7y ago

The Princeton Department of Mathematics page doesn't seem to have anything about his passing. Edit: Of course it's the weekend; I should have realized that there will probably not be anything on that page before Monday. https://www.math.princeton.edu/people/john-conway https://www.math.princeton.edu/people/john-conway

ColinWright 7y ago
It's Easter weekend, there probably wouldn't be anything before Tuesday. I've commented elsewhere[0] on the connectedness and reliability of Colm, but people can always wait for confirmation via other sources before they choose to believe it. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22843577 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22843577
wool_gather 7y ago
Yes, I wouldn't necessarily expect the web site to be updated immediately, but I would think there would be a tweet from https://twitter.com/princeton https://twitter.com/princeton sometime today at least.

yamrzou 7y ago

The first who tweeted about this seems to be a french mathematician named Martin Andler : https://twitter.com/MartinAndler/status/1249021279660683265 https://twitter.com/MartinAndler/status/1249021279660683265. Also this tweet by the french Science Magazine "La Recherche" : https://twitter.com/maglarecherche/status/1249035954519773186 https://twitter.com/maglarecherche/status/124903595451977318...

dang 7y ago

I trust Colin's explanation of the source. It would be awful to have fed a mistake, but wonderful if the news turned out not to be true. People are posting such good comments about Conway that I wouldn't want to bury the thread. Best case scenario, we change the title to "John Conway has not died" and continue to celebrate him.

ColinWright 7y ago
Mulcahy writes of formal confirmation[0]: > Not yet. Three of the people who told me heard it from his ex wife Diana. Two knew it was imminent since he fell ill on Wednesday. Also[1]: > More emails from insiders are arriving regularly. One from a student of his. Etc. And[2]: > From 5 of his close associates ... [0] https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082939423559680 https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082939423559680 [1] https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082390854729730 https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082390854729730 [2] https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082119567138819 https://twitter.com/CardColm/status/1249082119567138819 ================================= ================================= Added in edit: I've now had it confirmed in personal correspondence, but before it can be announced officially it needs to go through the Dean's Office, and it's a Holiday Weekend, so that won't be quick. It's reasonable for people to be sceptical, I don't have a problem with that.
- agumonkey 7y ago
  thanks for the update
wool_gather 7y ago
Fair enough :)