Comment on Dwarf Fortress' creator says the industry's in shambles over AI and layoff-happy CEOs: 'Everyone I know, their bosses are slowly getting psychosis'

• ricecake@sh.itjust.works ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  While it’s not true that intelligence is correlated with mental problems, advanced mathematics tends to attract or create odd ducks.

  There are multiple mathematicians in the modern era who are well regarded, technically homeless and just showed up at people’s houses to collaborate on some math. One, who coined the phrase “another roof, another proof”, was a staunch proponent of mixing amphetamines, coffee, and 70’s antidepressants.
  People didn’t notice John Nash devolved into a deep schizophrenic break for a long time because it’s not weird for advanced mathematicians to be talking about very complex unintelligible ideas. Scary Wheels and Super Shrubs is an example of a good title and not-transparent description.

  Another was the uni-bomber.

  There’s plenty of perfectly well balanced mathematicians. You just can’t help but get some weird ideas when your life’s work is to think outside the box about very complicated things all the time.

  If you go deep into math work, you’ll meet people who think the universe is a simulation. You’ll meet others who think that’s silly, because the universe is clearly actually an abstract embodiment of the platonic ideal of mathematics. 7, blue, and cat are all equally real or not real, and we don’t need a simulation as the equation defining structure is sufficient to give rise to what we experience, and requiring it to be written or executed is just an odd affectation.
  You’ll just nod and concede the appeal because it’s not the first time someone has shared that idea with you.

  So when the mathematicians start saying the ideas are getting odd, you know it’s not just “I don’t understand therefore it’s weird”.

  source

  • christian@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Maybe this implies I’m one of the weirdos, but my experience has been wildly different. My experience has been mathematicians are just people, what they have in common is a passion for math. Sometimes they’re weird, but that’s because they’re people and not because they do math. I never got the impression I was talking with a schizophrenic or a Kaczynski type. They exist, but non-mathatician schizophrenics do too.

    There are multiple mathematicians in the modern era who are well regarded, technically homeless and just showed up at people’s houses to collaborate on some math.

    I don’t think heard of this and I’m skeptical. Give me a couple names to jostle my memory?

    One, who coined the phrase “another roof, another proof”, was a staunch proponent of mixing amphetamines, coffee, and 70’s antidepressants.

    I don’t know this quote but I’d give it a 90% chance it’s Erdös.

    Scary Wheels and Super Shrubs is an example of a good title and not-transparent description.

    Come on man, this isn’t weird. It’s representation theory, there literally isn’t a transparent description. It’s weird to think having fun with a title isn’t a normal impulse from time-to-time.

    7, blue, and cat are all equally real or not real, and we don’t need a simulation as the equation defining structure is sufficient to give rise to what we experience, and requiring it to be written or executed is just an odd affectation.

    This reads as partially random to me, what is “the equation defining structure”?

    source
• HexesofVexes@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Mostly, we all see the world in unique ways - picture a building of possessed dwarves and you have the average mathematics department.

  source