Beans Have a Soul
January 19, 2019 3:59 PM   Subscribe

I believe our best chance at preserving the integrity and dignity of our tradition is to return to our Pythagorean roots. We should become a cult.
SLMcSweeneys
posted by thatwhichfalls (21 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
This was immensely charming, and I'm very glad that you shared it. I hope the post won't be deleted on grounds of thinness.
posted by crazy with stars at 4:12 PM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


There's a lot to chew on within that post. I think my maths upbringing at least tangentially touched the point where ritually stoning the calc5 student that didn't have his trigonometric integrals memorized seems appropriate... so yeah, I could see this whole cult thing as being a total upside recruitment effort.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:49 PM on January 19, 2019


yessssssss
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 5:00 PM on January 19, 2019


I was going to make a joke that this would be a good Neal Stephenson novel but then I remembered Anathem and it basically is what this would look like on an alternate Earth.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:15 PM on January 19, 2019 [5 favorites]


As luck would have it I saw this flyer a couple of days ago and like.. does anyone want to join a mysterious math cult with me
posted by theodolite at 5:20 PM on January 19, 2019 [7 favorites]


The Logan Square Esoteric Math Circle...

Your flyer led me to this. It actually looks quite interesting. It appears to be a religious group started by this guy. Religious as in Pythagoreanism, Hermeticism, etc. He wants people to come and discuss such things as What are numbers? I would love this, but Chicago is about 2000 miles east of here in San Francisco. Anyone want to start something like this here?
posted by njohnson23 at 5:57 PM on January 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


Didn't philology kind of try this? It didn't work out but we did get Lord of the Rings so...
posted by Wretch729 at 6:13 PM on January 19, 2019


As long as they don't persecute the physicists for teaching calculus to uninitiated students.
posted by heatherlogan at 6:59 PM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


Wasn't this the beginning of the plot to "The Secret History"?
posted by eviemath at 7:24 PM on January 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


In other observations,

but rather our reputations will be the rumors of our arcane wisdom

so, probability theory following the Russian School circa the fall of the Soviet Union?
posted by eviemath at 7:29 PM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


From a pragmatic perspective, it would also be a good opportunity to ensure that the hopeful novices understand how fucking fractions work.

Speaking as a math teacher, HELLS YES.
posted by Go Banana at 7:36 PM on January 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


Physicists do not teach Mathematics, only advanced arithmetic. They are applied mathematicians who fail to understand the truth of Mathematics. They must build devices and engines to prove their theories. Pure mathematics can be proven true by the power of reason alone. Toys, like multi-core computers, are useful but in principle unnecessary. Physics students who learn how to use Calculus do not need to understand the truth of Calculus. The power is in understanding the underlying proofs so that you might then begin to understand how to create your own fields and sub-fields of Mathematics. Solving equations is pedestrian, devising proofs that structure a form of math previously unknown is to be like unto the Gods. Physicists discover, Mathematicians create.

The above is recognized to be how the Wars of Scientific Religion start after the Collapse. For the record physics is pretty cool. Even if the math for quantum phenomena is bugf#<>
posted by Ignorantsavage at 7:45 PM on January 19, 2019 [7 favorites]


> Anyone want to start something like this here?
I would be interested in joining, starting my own rival faction, splitting the cult and ultimately frying my brain cells with an overdose of stimulants and coffee in an ill-fated attempt to contact Erdős from beyond the grave
posted by ReadEvalPost at 8:32 PM on January 19, 2019 [7 favorites]


ReadEvalPost... I have a Ouiji board and various slide rules for contacting the spirit field in non-Abelian ways. If rival factions are to form, than we need to design appropriate clothing accessories in order to foster factional loyalties. My Erdös number is i, what’s yours?
posted by njohnson23 at 8:41 PM on January 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


My days drinking in Cambridge pubs with pure mathematicians left me with the considerable impression that the proposal in the FPP was already largely implemented. If anything, it understates the extant ritual aspects of the mystery cult - more unicycles, more thuds.
posted by Devonian at 1:36 AM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


This year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of George Spencer-Brown's Laws of Form (LoF). There is a celebratory meeting. Spencer-Brown would make a great, and dead, cult head. GSB set out to re-found mathematics. He may have succeeded. Judges are still out.
posted by stonepharisee at 2:48 AM on January 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


He may have succeeded. Judges are still out.

Considering I've never heard of him, and the Wikipedia article doesn't mention any other modern foundational works in mathematical logic or "tie everything together" fields like category theory, I'm going to hazard a guess that the judges are in and he did not succeed. Definitely a relevant link to this thread though, and, yes, the exact right sort of character for a deceased cult head!
posted by eviemath at 7:04 AM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


ultimately frying my brain cells with an overdose of stimulants and coffee in an ill-fated attempt to contact Erdős from beyond the grave

Anything to reduce your number, am I right?
posted by tobascodagama at 7:34 AM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


Considering I've never heard of him, and the Wikipedia article doesn't mention any other modern foundational works in mathematical logic or "tie everything together" fields like category theory, I'm going to hazard a guess that the judges are in and he did not succeed.

Did you check the Whole Earth Catalog?
posted by thelonius at 8:26 AM on January 20, 2019


Did you check the Whole Earth Catalog?

Pssh. Everyone knows that any truly revolutionary approach to the foundations of mathematics would be found on a shoe polish label(*).

(* Soap bottles, as you no doubt know, are for the fields of ethics and political science. Toothpaste is for the physical sciences, hair dye for economics, etc. One must maintain the proper disciplinary separation of personal care products. The Whole Earth Catalog serves as a sort of course catalog for many of these disciplines, but the arcane secrets of pure mathematics are not to be found in such a vulgar location.)
posted by eviemath at 12:24 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


The Spencer-Brown idea has wings, or rather, a giant clothes peg on its head. The description of the video is based on his Laws of Form.
posted by stonepharisee at 2:34 PM on January 20, 2019


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