FOM: Re: natural examples

[Karlis Podnieks]

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Stevenson <steve at cs.clemson.edu>
To: fom at math.psu.edu <fom at math.psu.edu>
Date: ceturtdiena, 1999. gada 29. jûlijâ 21:49
Subject: FOM: natural examples


...
    ".... In other words, at a great distance from its empirical
source, or after much ``abstract'' inbreeding, a mathematical
subject is in danger of degeneration....'.
   J. von Neuman

KP> Polish writer Stanislav Lem joked in his book "Summa
Technologiae": mathematicians are like mad tailors: they are
making "all possible clothes" and hope to make also something
suitable for dressing....

I think that this problem is due to the very nature of the
mathematical method. No other branch of science knows such
problems. See http://www.ltn.lv/~podnieks/ for details.

Karlis Podnieks
University of Latvia
Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science