FOM: Einstein, Godel, physics/math culture

[Mark Steiner]

On Einstein and mathematics, I think it highly relevant that G.H. Hardy,
a twentieth-century pure mathematician, states in his "A Mathematician's
Apology" as an example of pure mathematics, Einstein's theory of
relativity.    As most readers of this list will remember, the major
criterion for a theory to be mathematics (according to Hardy) is
aesthetic.  He predicted that pure mathematics has no military
applications (Macpherson in the Millenium Conference pointed out that
even Hardy's field , number theory, has classified theorems today).