Conversation

QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID 😷)
@QiaochuYuan
this is one of the things i found refreshing about cambridge too, that their conception of the relationship between math and physics was rooted in a history of not distinguishing them. "classical mechanics" was a *math* class. isaac newton was a *math professor* there
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QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID 😷)
@QiaochuYuan
but it's felt to me for awhile like at some point in the last ~30-100 years mathematicians stopped trying to understand *the world* and i think that was bad actually. mathematics disconnected from the world is just a complicated and engrossing puzzle game
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QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID 😷)
@QiaochuYuan
mathematics considered as a puzzle game is, to be clear, amazing. you never run out of content. content content content. you can have as much new content as you can handle. and i happen to be able to handle a lot. but it's so easy for it to not *go anywhere*
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Berarom
@rerarom
i think some mathematicians would say that math has a telos but in a way more ineffable than physics. that even if the content is massive it isn't like it's disorganized. most probably they would say that stuff like the riemann hypothesis or the langlands program points to it
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