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OK, but has there ever been a "prophet" of any field of mathematics who sparked people's interest like Hawking or Sagan? (I disagree that Feynman had this impa
by mquander 15y ago
OK, but has there ever been a "prophet" of any field of mathematics who sparked people's interest like Hawking or Sagan? (I disagree that Feynman had this impact.) I don't think there has been and I don't think that there will be until we all get to the Singularity.
It's a lot easier to get someone interested in something that they can look up at in the sky than something which is totally abstract.
- eru 15y agoChaos and fractals lead to some (superficial) interest in mathematics for some time. And they are totally abstract.
- hugh3 15y agoYou're right, the general public can be persuaded to get interested in anything that involves pretty pictures. This is part of the reason I switched from studying semiconductor physics to giant planets. Much prettier pictures on my slides, nowadays.