[math-fun] The Unabomber's Mathematical Locutions
Back in 1995 I remember reading a copy of the Unabomber Manifesto over lunch in a bar in Princeton, New Jersey. It had been just been published in the New York Times. He hadn't been caught yet, but was about to be. I remember thinking as I read it, you know, this guy uses a lot of mathematical turns of phrases. I even told the bartender my guess that the Unabomber was a mathematician, or maybe a physicist. A few weeks later he was arrested. I went into the same bar and the bartender remembered my prediction. He gave me a free lunch. Anyway here's a couple of chunks from the Manifesto. There are others... * * * In the past, human nature has been approximately constant, or at any rate has varied only within certain bounds... * * * * Throughout this article we've made imprecise statements and statements that ought to have had all sorts of qualifications and reservations attached to them; and some of our statements may be flatly false. Lack of sufficient information and the need for brevity made it impossible for us to fomulate our assertions more precisely or add all the necessary qualifications. And of course in a discussion of this kind one must rely heavily on intuitive judgment, and that can sometimes be wrong. So we don't claim that this article expresses more than a crude approximation to the truth... Thane Plambeck 650 321 4884 office 650 323 4928 fax http://www.qxmail.com/home.htm
I remember thinking as I read it, you know, this guy uses a lot of mathematical turns of phrases. I even told the bartender my guess that the Unabomber was a mathematician, or maybe a physicist.
I also read the manifesto, and I thought he sounded quite a bit like a mathematician. The manifesto actually seemed pretty well reasoned from a logical point of view, it's just off-base from a social perspective---an exaggerated form of a common mathematician's personality. I told a number of people, but nobody gave me a free lunch. However, I was surprised to learn that he'd had an office in Berkeley in T-4 at the same time I had an office there as a grad student and hung out quite a lot. Like most others in the building at the time, I had no recollection of him. Bill Thurston
A few weeks later he was arrested. I went into the same bar and the bartender remembered my prediction. He gave me a free lunch.
Anyway here's a couple of chunks from the Manifesto. There are others...
* * * In the past, human nature has been approximately constant, or at any rate has varied only within certain bounds... * * * * Throughout this article we've made imprecise statements and statements that ought to have had all sorts of qualifications and reservations attached to them; and some of our statements may be flatly false. Lack of sufficient information and the need for brevity made it impossible for us to fomulate our assertions more precisely or add all the necessary qualifications. And of course in a discussion of this kind one must rely heavily on intuitive judgment, and that can sometimes be wrong. So we don't claim that this article expresses more than a crude approximation to the truth...
Thane Plambeck 650 321 4884 office 650 323 4928 fax http://www.qxmail.com/home.htm
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Thane Plambeck's claim that he got a free lunch from a bartender must be false since, as Moriarty proved in 1897, there is no such thing as a free lunch. My guess is that the bartender slipped him a cold supper disguised as a lunch. Lee Sallows ps Clearly diminished capacitance is measured in picofarads rather than farads. .com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
My guess is that the bartender slipped him a cold supper disguised as a lunch.
Very possibly correct. It was a Chinese Chicken Salad as I recall. Thane _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
participants (3)
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Bill Thurston -
Lee Sallows -
Thane Plambeck