Mathematics and the Obsolescence through Obscurity
I think mathematics is becoming the mechanical equivalence of Latin. It’s outstanding use today is as a communication tool and supposedly as an idea construction tool, whereas most of the actual action is performed by programmable calculators, the equivalent of Gutenberg's movable type. One of the aims for academics assisting with Latin's continued life-support was to phrase concepts coherently and more concisely than possible through national language, which was only considered the vehicle for which life would inherit and bring the colour to their structured lines of logic. Eventually the mass recording and culturally facilitated interpretations of history offered an even more useful structuring of society’s most complex systems of ideas. A book title or just a person’s name suddenly was able to invoke more feelings in a listener than the most neatly patterned Latin. In other words, our methods for accessing information slowly outshone the necessary responsibility to define it.
In the same fashion, well programmed software
functions are becoming more frequently called by workers than the handwritten
symbols most capable of succinctly summarising mechanisms. If worked well enough,
such software can be agreed to represent the best mathematically defined ideas
so predictably, and replicated around the world so reliably, that the lines
of code in their construction are archived and never looked at, only the syntax
to call or integrate them. So, as history has dealt with the once highly-protected
patterns of grammatical constructors by establishing their referencability within
memes, cultural icons and libraries using more than just a few words, so too
will the highly-cherished mathematical communicae be subjected to a top-down
process of categorisation and well-accepted authorship within software and databases
so that the images conveyed through contrast and analogy alone can inspire the
hand-gesturing who’s role is so desperately played-down by the systems
of numerical representations today.
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islisis: the problem with mathematics exercises is that unlike all good fields of pursuits doing it doesn't change your blood
(06.04.2006, 22:05)
islisis: there's gotta be a place to start
http://www.rbjones.com/rbjpub/cs/ai022.htm
(29.04.2006, 18:09)
<no name>: maths should not be about looking for needles in haystacks
so, i’m not saying that we should not know about needles in haystacks
i am saying that we should guide the tools which identify needles in haystacks
(14.05.2006, 02:38)
<no name>: http://pauli.uni-muenster.de/~munsteg/arnold.html
(05.08.2007, 05:53)
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