That was kind of interesting. While reading it, I had some "negative thoughts" ... reflecting upon the exceptional mathematical understanding possessed by one such as
Teddy Kaczynski. Compare this to the kind of authority the author from MAA projects, speaking as some kind of "insider."
It's a fuucked up world, as you know Holden. There is ice in people's laughter, and the poor man who figures things out may be in danger of being made a total fool of by this mass of meat called the silent majority. How can an honest man be anything but a dark-minded satirist? Could you imagine a conversation between this Professor Keith Devlin and ex-Professor (for only 2 years since he was over-the-heads of mostly all students and faculty) Kaczynski? Kaczynski would be "behind the times" as far as computer programming goes, and how dependent upon computers "doing" current mathematics has become. I suppose it is all relative how "intelligent" one is deemed by "industrial society".
Is one intelligent enough to command a military troop using algorithms? Does it take a deeper kind of sense to have no desire to apply mathematics to the "mathematized," "alphanumericized," so-called real world? They would judge such a man as Teddy Kaczynski harshly even if he had not become
the Unabomber [RED FLAG! I don't care]. You see, they would say he was unable to communicate his ideas to make themselves (and the hordes of happy slaves/consumers) feel superior.
Why did Kaczynski study the complex mathematics he studied? Was he simply doing as he was told or did he have a genuine interest? What kind of creepy world have we been born into? What a nightmare zoo! The wiz kids who master the new monkeys' tricks may develop a certain hubris that will leave them ill-equipped to handle complex problems without access to the awesome machines with the amazing compter-algebra-systems . I imagine there was a time when computations had to be handled by many individual computing-human-beings, where a large problem is divided into manageable sub-problems. No wonder so many of us drawn to "calculating and computing" find ourselves all-too-superflous.
I can't see getting through this life without coming to the conclusion that our entire society is one great farce, and that those who really "get it," end up institutionalized.
I have serious mistrust of the insiders. Hell, what is deep learning?
“First, what is taught is not, in itself, of any significance. The chances of anyone who finds they need to make use of mathematics at some point in their life or career being able to use any specific high school curriculum method is close to zero. In fact, by the time a student today graduates from university, the mathematics they may find themselves having to use may well have not been developed when they were at school. Such is the pace of change today.”
“Second, what is crucial to effective math learning is what is sometimes called “deep learning”; the ability to think fluidly and creatively, adapting definitions and techniques already mastered, reasoning by analogy with reasoning that has worked (or not worked) on similar problems in the past, and combining (in a creative fashion) known approaches to a novel situation.”
“But here’s the rub. The mass of evidence from research in cognitive science tells us that the only way to acquire that all important “deep learning” is by prolonged engagement with some specific mathematics topics. So, to be effective, any mathematics curriculum has to focus on a small number of specific topics.”
I believe it is the first that made you think of my work with the Dolciani texts, where I am using it as inspiration to adapt modern C++ generic programming techniques to their approach of "Modern" [abstract] mathematics:
The chances of anyone who finds they need to make use of mathematics at some point in their life or career being able to use any specific high school curriculum method is close to zero. In fact, by the time a student today graduates from university, the mathematics they may find themselves having to use may well have not been developed when they were at school. Such is the pace of change today.He may simply have mentioned the increase use of computer algebra systems.
It is impossible for me to engage in any dialogue with "insiders" since I am such an extreme "outsider" when it comes to academia and its master, industrial civilization.
I am afraid that I have become of quietly bitter man with a great deal of resentment and hatred in me. It is difficult to hide my own disgust with the things people are proud of. I see and feel too much. I get it that the world will have a good hearty laugh whenever a so-called "genius" flips the script and tells academia and Master Big Busine$$ to shove it up their collective a-hole, then gets punished or dealt with accordingly. The blockheads who follow orders but don't really understand anything beyond "report to your position" get off on seeing deranged geniuses go off the deep end, getting pulled from shacks in the woods ... literally making jokes about "dirty underwear."
Even though I am no mathematical genius, compared to most people in "my?" society, I might as well be. How I imagine they delight in seeing me penniless and dependent upon the government for my sustenance.
Are not soldiers also depending on their government in exchange for service?
Me, there is no reporting to a "superior," and all they could do with me, most likely, is either put a bullet in my head, rip my tongue out, cut off my fingertips, etc.
I write while I can. I am determined to continue to breathe life into the Dolciani classic, Modern Introductory Analysis, but I wish to increase my knowledge of the C++ STL so that I can present more mathematically elegant solutions, as far as programming exercises go.
That is a personal quest who only a handful of people might really appreciate. I do so with full knowledge of my Outsider Status. I do so with full knowledge of my mediocre intelligence in comparison to the wiz kids and savants.
I have tried to engage in actual conversation about actual math or actual code, but there are only crickets mostly.
I am not interested in learning how to become a good code-monkey for Big Business, the Medical-Prison-Complex.
I can't help but feel that there are many conspiring against this "I" I keep referring to.
Maybe the Internet only makes it that much more clear to me how very full of shiit this world is, and always has been.
It would not take too much to land me in the streets, and without the "stability" offered by living indoors with access to electricity and food, I can not predict what kind of animal-creature I will become next. Who does know who they are, really, until they have missed several meals and have nowhere to rest their tired psychic body?
I have a great deal of doubt in "authority" of all kinds. Holden, I know this will come as no surprise to you or raul, but, goddamn, I don't think I can prevent myself from becoming more and more bitter. The gorts are not worthy of a detailed explanation of anything. They will only mock those of us who have figured something out for ourselves, which makes it impossible to acclimate ourselves to this insane world.
The Internet is like being in a circle of drunks, each one yammering on and on, and no one hearing the others.
In the end, what will matter most may be the conversation one maintains with oneself, between the ears.
I try to be honest, but you must see by now that I am also a victim of the madness that is this world. I am not immune!
I do not claim to have any answers. All I can share with you is my seething bitterness, so that, when you feel yourself going insane (a consequence of asking questions which have no answers), you might be comforted that it is just par for the course if you are courageous enough to face the brute facts of our predicament.
At the risk of sounding like a Prophet of Doom, to me, the author of that article from MAA appears to believe in something like "progress" in the development of mathematics. All well and good, but, there is something about this that does rub me the wrong way.
Holden, do you think I may simply be a hopeless suicidal depressive who is only able to see human beings as the tubes, intestines, and nerve endings they are?
How many are in on the conspiracy to make us feel like such outsiders?
That is, how many insiders does it take to fool us, to trick us, to pull the wool over our eyes?