5 ms·
Fantastic short article with some tidbits and puzzle pieces of this oft-told story that I had not known about before. Also, due to an outside writer, kind of a
by mturmon 4y ago
Fantastic short article with some tidbits and puzzle pieces of this oft-told story that I had not known about before. Also, due to an outside writer, kind of a respite from the typical Quanta breathless tone. (They do an excellent job, but sometimes I feel they push too hard on the significance of discoveries.)
One such interesting tidbit is the notion of a different mathematical culture at the time, which valued “duels” — exchanges of mathematical puzzles. Whoever solves the most, wins. This practice (we read) incentivized keeping some clever problem solutions secret, as ammo for a future contest.
- kayamon 4y agoThese mathematical duels still happen today. The field of cryptoeconomics is full of online debaters trying to prove/disprove who amongst them understands the most economic game theory.