Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
Thomas Edison
This is the story of how brawn has got one-over on brains, how the high school jock has come out on top over the class nerd. This is the story of how humans have been defeated by machines. But before you rush down into your bunkers and prepare yourselves for a rationed diet of baked beans and spam for the foreseeable future, I’m not talking about an I, Robot or Terminator kind of robot revolution overthrowing their human oppressors. What I am talking about is how the machine, the computer, has replaced much of the imagination, subtlety and beauty of human thought with sheer, bloody-minded elbow grease- The power to number crunch and calculate at breathtaking speeds that, had anyone suggested only a few years ago, would have been thought loonier than George Loony starring in Loonraker.
Some of the best mathematics, for whatever "best" means, is often referred to as elegant. To call something elegant in the mathematics world is high praise indeed. Elegance can mean the simple solution to a seemingly complex problem, or a surprising route from A to B, by-passing the ugly commuter towns of C, D, E, F and G. An elegant solution is often short, quick and tidy. It’s the mathematical form of efficiency but with style- Imagine a mix of German/Italian stereotypes (without the Fascism). An elegant solution is more likely to arise from some serious head scratching. By working the grey matter before even picking up a pencil or chalk then we hope to save time and resources, as well as creating something with an artistic bent. Like reading the Sky+ manual before plugging it in, the setting-up will be less painful. Less haste, more speed was the mathematician’s mantra. To mix metaphors, step back and survey the landscape before diving in.
In the days when the only thing at the mathematician’s disposal was the pen and paper, they had little choice but to mull over the problem at hand until they could spot a clever way to tackle it. This might include wrapping-up the problem in a form they were more familiar with and could get a better grip of, or approximating bits of the problem so the maths wasn't so impenetrable. Or in some of the most elegant cases, this meant looking at the problem from a whole new perspective, standing on one leg on the table with one eye shut. These kind of insights can produce the "eureka" moment. Unfortunately, such moments are unpredictable and the chin stroking approach can be frustrating and lead to whole estates of dead ends, regardless of how many hot baths you take or apple trees you sit under.
In the world of science in recent years, things have changed. When inspiration has long deserted the cause and perspiration is all that is left there is another option. Elegance and beauty have been replaced by raw power and brute force. Like Linford Christie replacing Carl Lewis or Drogba replacing Messi. Now, often the first port of call for a mathematician is to plunge straight into pummeling the numbers. Act first and think later, like a cop working outside of the law, set on revenge.
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