Comments on: ICM2010 — Chern prize inauguration

By: the ICM2010 « Út V. Lê

the ICM2010 « Út V. Lê — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:02:16 +0000

[...] ICM2010 – Chern prize inauguration (gowers.wordpress.com) [...]

By: Elin

Elin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:25:12 +0000

Oh, and I didn’t manage to use the reply button properly. Hope this doesn’t mess up the sequence…

By: Elin

Elin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:21:39 +0000

Well, as a ‘first cause’ the TV series NUMB3RS is to blame for that. I enjoyed watching it so much that I wanted to know more. It inspired me to read popular maths books (‘The Music of the Primes’, that sort of thing), to lurk on various maths blogs, and to sign up for a Level 1 Mathematics course with the Open University ( I have just unwrapped my revision pack!) I realised that there is a whole world out there which I had ignored before, which I mostly don’t understand but which fascinates me all the same, and the internet and blogs like yours can open a window on that world that would otherwise be closed to me because I am not a mathematician. It even makes me feel like I can participate a bit – well, by leaving this comment I am participating! I think I’ve seen ‘science groupies’ being discussed on Scott Aaronson’s blog – maybe that’s what I am.
Sorry about the long answer, but it is quite hard to put my finger on exactly what it is that draws me in. Maybe I should explain that this is not the first time that a book, film or TV series was the starting point for some more serious learning. For example, a couple of years ago I was working my way through ‘Teach Yourself Catalan’ – after reading too many Aubrey/Maturin novels…
Oh, and the reason why I enjoyed your ICM posts in particular? As long as you talk about showers and chafing dishes, I can actually understand what you are saying!

By: gowers

gowers — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:09:02 +0000

That’s very good to know, but it leaves me curious: how do you come to be interested enough in mathematics to want to know what goes on at the ICM?

By: Elin

Elin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:27:41 +0000

Can I just say how much I have enjoyed your posts from the ICM? In one of your earlier posts you said something about doing this for the benefit of other mathematicians who for some reason could not go. Well, I am not a mathematician, will never be one and will never go to an ICM, but your blog posts take me there. So thanks for that.
Btw, those shower temperature/flow regulators you describe are often found in bathrooms of private homes in Germany. In the UK not so much, where people have barely heard of the mixer tap…

By: gowers

gowers — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:47:38 +0000

Thanks — that’s exactly where I got the airports quotation from, but I had forgotten. I wasn’t so fond of the Chern quote about having enough good ideas when you are young, because I think I’ve squeezed most of what I can out of my own youthful ideas. I’m trying to find some new ones …

By: V Vinay

V Vinay — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 02:55:00 +0000

“If you have never missed a plane then you spend too much of your life in airports,” is attributed to Umesh Vazirani by Scott Aaronson. Umesh also meant it to include other forms of transportation as well, as I found out first hand while trying to put him (literally) onto a nearly running train. And when he had finally boarded the train, he had this broad smile on his face; there was something strangely exhilarating about the experience.

I loved this quote of Chern in the short film: The trick is to have a enough good ideas when you are young to last a lifetime.

PS: “… the light we see was emitted long ago” is a really wicked gem! Not sure if you meant it that way though.

By: John Sidles

John Sidles — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 02:02:55 +0000

Tim Gowers remarks: … and the subject (of mathematics) is so big that a niche is all one needs …

Hmmm … it seems pretty clear that a niche-filling strategy is nearly optimal for individual mathematical careers … but if this were true at the global level, would there be any need for large integrative conferences like the ICM?

Moreover, to the extent that one role of mathematics is to provide tools to systems engineers, isn’t a pure niche-filling strategy suboptimal even at the individual level?

Historically, one avenue for respectfully appreciating and (over time) resolving these tensions has been humor … is there any avenue that has proven more effective?

So if anything comical happened at the ICM … please blog about it!