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Rather striking that such a sentiment would find approval here. I'm not sure how you might actually defend such a statement. I would defy you to produce any fru

Rather striking that such a sentiment would find approval here. I'm not sure how you might actually defend such a statement. I would defy you to produce any fruits of sociology that are comparable to those of mathematics (remembering that everything in science and engineering hedges upon math).

amichail 19y ago
Web 2.0 is one huge sociology experiment. Its scientists are entrepreneurs trying out new ideas and tweaking others with the goal of maximizing traffic. As for more traditional sociology research, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociological_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociological_theory
- mynameishere 19y ago
  Web 2.0 is one huge sociology experiment It is...perhaps...a thing that falls under the rubric of "socialogical phenomena", but that doesn't really regard the science as such. It's just it's self-declared field of study. The science itself could have never existed and people would have still made webpages of various types. Again, I don't think I need to point out that mathematics are a necessary condition (10,000 times over) for "web 2.0" to even exist.
  - amichail 19y ago
    Again, I don't think I need to point out that mathematics are a necessary condition (10,000 times over) for "web 2.0" to even exist. I think it's more helpful to consider whether mathematics is at the core of most web 2.0 services or whether it is somewhat removed (e.g., part of an encryption library used by the service, part of building a computer, etc.).
Alex3917 19y ago
I defy you to show me a math book that makes no use of the written word or alternative forms of communication. Clearly linguistics is the most important subject and mathematicians are just a bunch of derivative hacks. :-)
- eru 18y ago
  http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=1382 http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=1382 (Not quite there, yet. But trying.)

amichail 19y ago

Web 2.0 is one huge sociology experiment. Its scientists are entrepreneurs trying out new ideas and tweaking others with the goal of maximizing traffic. As for more traditional sociology research, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociological_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociological_theory

mynameishere 19y ago
Web 2.0 is one huge sociology experiment It is...perhaps...a thing that falls under the rubric of "socialogical phenomena", but that doesn't really regard the science as such. It's just it's self-declared field of study. The science itself could have never existed and people would have still made webpages of various types. Again, I don't think I need to point out that mathematics are a necessary condition (10,000 times over) for "web 2.0" to even exist.
- amichail 19y ago
  Again, I don't think I need to point out that mathematics are a necessary condition (10,000 times over) for "web 2.0" to even exist. I think it's more helpful to consider whether mathematics is at the core of most web 2.0 services or whether it is somewhat removed (e.g., part of an encryption library used by the service, part of building a computer, etc.).

Alex3917 19y ago

I defy you to show me a math book that makes no use of the written word or alternative forms of communication. Clearly linguistics is the most important subject and mathematicians are just a bunch of derivative hacks. :-)

eru 18y ago
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=1382 http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=1382 (Not quite there, yet. But trying.)