Hi Kim,
On 20 Dec 2008, at 06:06, Kim Jones wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hmmm... My diagnostic is that you are suffering from an acute form
>> of math-anxiety. I can cure that!
>
>
> Looks like I have to say "Yes, Doctor" again!
Good!
>
>
>
>> Tell me first if you have been once mentally or physically raped
>> or tortured by a mathematician.
>
>
>
> Yes. When I was in first class, the school teacher said "Stand up
> and recite your 7 times table". I became anxiety-struck, got sweaty
> palms and sat down. I think I may have cried. I think I should find
> this person and bring them to justice, what do you say?
The 7 times table? It is a real bastard! If this was a bit systematic,
you can bring him or them to justice. Only be sure the judge will not
ask you to stand up and recite the seven times table ...
Of course there is nothing wrong that a teacher ask a student to stand
up and recite the seven times table, but from what has followed and
from your previews posts and from my experience I can guess it was a
bit more than that.
>
> Later on, it was discovered that the part of my brain that does
> mathematics had somehow mapped itself to the musical part, possibly
> even at that very moment - so that the musical perception became
> more finely-grained while the maths-perception missed out
>
> I kid you not, a psychologist told me
I believe you.
>
>
>>
>> Friedrich Gauss said that math is the most easy of all the
>> sciences, and I think he is right.
>
>
> Yes, but he and you probably were not physically abused or tortured
> by your primary school maths teachers the way I was
Actually, I could say that I have been more, and less, lucky.
More lucky because in primary school, and in high school, I have been
in front of real gentle and good mathematicians almost all the time.
This has given to me a solid base.
Less lucky because I have been tortured at university, once by a
logician in 1977, and again by the same manipulator in 1994, (with a
geometer and a philosopher, who were strictly speaking just other
victims of that logicians, (actually a brilliant and ingenuous
manipulator).
You can imagine the scandal. It is so big, that they use, still today
a lot of energy to hide it. for just one example which is verifiable
on the net, when I got the price of the best thesis in Paris in 1998,
see
http://www.lemonde.fr/mde/prix/janv99.html
they have succeeded, from Brussels, to make that price (money+the
publication of the thesis+ promotion of the thesis) disappear. I don't
even figure in the list of ancient laureates, see
http://www.lemonde.fr/mde/prix/ancienslaureats.html
Instead of promotion I got life long defamation and calumnies. The
only explanation I got from Paris has been: c'est la vie!
I am more lucky than you, Kim, because I was an adult, and all in all,
they have only succeeded in deepening my research, in broadening my
inquiry, in motivating me eventually to address myself to the most
impartial judge ever, the universal machine. They have not succeed to
break down my enthusiasm for long, and they have made me eventually an
infinitely patient teacher. I have a very positive nature in life,
which makes me extract the positive things even from the worst. I
have still a little handicap for finishing paper, though, or deciding
when a text is finished, and that is why I like oral or electronical
talk. Tom Caylor asked me why I don't submit papers, and the reason is
there.
>
>
>
>
>> It is probably not obvious to find something new in math, but it is
>> easy to apprehend the discovery of others. That needs only work and
>> patience, and some taste, but you are musician and I am sure you
>> have the taste for at least some part of math.
>
>
> The part that where they drop a silicon chip into my brain with the
> whole of mathematics and computational science on it, plus the
> mental software to run it - and I simply understand all of it
> without going to the monumental effort of learning it.
>
> How far off can that be?
The pleasure is in the (long) path (I'm afraid). Note that a math
book, a course or a conversation is already a good approximation of
this.
>
>
>
>>
>> Math is very large. Almost all tastes can be recompensed. Baroc,
>> Classical, Jazz, Pop, Techno, Melodic, High, ...
>> All geometers like beauty. All logicians like mystery (but only one
>> half of the logicians admit the fact).
>> Mathematicians of different sensibilities can be terrible among
>> themselves and with their students. It is very sad!
>
>
> Like the one I copped when I was in first class who publicly
> humiliated me and shorted my math motherboard
>
> no wonder I need a new, fully digital, artificial brain. This one
> comes PRE-loaded with the whole of mathematics!!
In that case your head will explode into a multiverse. It could be a
good thing, but let us proceed more carefully.
>
>
>
>
>>
>> I will do KIM 2.2 asap (= tomorrow, or Sunday, or Monday). It
>> introduces the key difference between first person and third person
>> experiences/discourses.
>> We cannot really know what a person experience is, so we will
>> contend ourselves for a time with their discourses (including
>> silences).
>
>
> This sounds like the fun part
You are very kind and sensible, it seems to me, like most victim of
(math) harassment. Harasser acts by jealousy and sadism, they want to
destroy what they hoped to be but believes they can't be, in general
because they have been themselves victim of harassment. I am sure in
this list some other have been trapped in similar circumstances. It is
widespread with varying degrees. I think the circumstances unite so we
can help each other,
Best,
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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Received on Mon Dec 22 2008 - 11:28:44 PST