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Gary Bennett
https://www.goodreads.com/garyobennett
“The belief that mathematics exists somewhere else than within us, that it is discovered more than created, is called Platonism, after Plato’s belief in a non-spatiotemporal realm that was the region of the perfect forms of which the objects on earth were imperfect reproductions. By definition, the non-spatiotemporal realm is outside time and space. It is not the creation of any deity, it simply is. To say that it is eternal or that it has always existed is to make a temporal remark, which does not apply. It is the timeless nowhere which never has and never will exist anywhere but which nevertheless is. The physical world is temporal and declines, the non-spatiotemporal one is ideal and doesn’t.”
― A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age
― A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age
“I read once of David Hockney’s answering the question, Why do your shoeless figures always have socks on, by saying, I can’t draw feet.”
― A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age
― A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age
“Mathematics is objective and permanent. A² + B² = C² was true before Pythagoras had his name attached to it, and will be true when the sun goes out and no one is left to think of it. It is true for any alien life that might think of it, and true whether they think of it or not. It cannot be changed.”
― A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age
― A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age
“homunculus?”
― End of Story
― End of Story
“As you climb the academic ladder, the pressure to specialize only increases. The academic world is ruled by the law of publish or perish. If you want a job, you must publish in peer-reviewed journals. But journals are divided by discipline, and publishing an article on virus mutations in a biology journal demands following different conventions from publishing an article on the politics of pandemics in a history journal. There are different jargons, different citation rules, and different expectations. Historians should have a deep understanding of culture and know how to read and interpret historical documents. Biologists should have a deep understanding of evolution and know how to read and interpret DNA molecules. Things that fall in between categories—like the interplay between human political ideologies and virus evolution—are often left unaddressed.[20]”
― Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
― Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Gary’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Gary’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,402 books
|
293 friends
351 books
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169 friends
111 books
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174 friends
217 books
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47 friends
1,884 books
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102 friends
273 books
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163 friends
114 books
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61 friends
134 books
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81 friends
More friends…
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