On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 07:49:37PM -0500, Kris Coward wrote:
>
> Of course, I have to object vehemently to your suggestion that math is a
> great tool for maintaining mental acuity. Not because it's false, but
> because I think that you're really selling math short here :)
Oh, right - I forgot to mention: that's just _one_ useful aspect of
math, but not its _only_ useful aspect. I seem to recall that it's used
for one or two other things as well... :)
> And I've
> never had much use for calculators and the like, what with their
> complete uselessness for proving theorems and all :)
Right - you don't need anything like that for the Pythagorean or the
Gregory-Leibnitz series - and besides, they're *stoopid* when it comes
to operations beyond 53 bits/15 digits. Or rounding. Or storing
fractions. Totally pointless things, really. :)
> Too bad the working conditions for research mathematicians have
> deteriorated so badly in the past few decades, or I might still be doing
> that (hey, you guys got to brag about having had actual bit buckets, so
> it's only fair that I get a turn)
I have several friends who are mathematicians; working in the computer
field puts you in contact with all sorts of disreputable characters like
that. :) Actually, mathematicians give me a warm, fuzzy feeling: the
rest of the world thinks that we computer professionals speak an alien
language and think in Martian... but I've heard mathematicians
discussing their work, and I know who the real Martians among us are. :)
That's why there's no Nobel Prize for you guys: I guess old Alfred
wanted to restrict it to Earth beings only...
Ben
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