Dangerous Knowledge

[Pollinosis]

You can find the video at the link.


In this 90-minute BBC documentary, Dangerous Knowledge, David Malone takes a close look at four mathematicians – Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing – whose thinking profoundly influenced modern mathematics but also drove them (or so the program argues) to insanity and eventually suicide. Cantor gave us “set theory.” Boltzmann made important contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics. Gödel is remembered for his incompleteness theorems. Turing built on Gödel’s work and laid the foundation for computer science. They all spent their difficult final years in various states of mental decline.
http://www.openculture.com/2010/06/dangerous_knowledge.html (http://www.openculture.com/2010/06/dangerous_knowledge.html)

[Angler]

There's a well-substantiated link between genius and mental illness (especially manic depression). Most of the better-known cases have involved those with talent in literature or the arts, but I suspect something similar can happen with those who are brilliant in other areas.

Anyway, good find. :thumbsup:

[Ahknaton]

Alan Turing most probably committed suicide because of his homosexuality and the social/legal consequences of that at the time (he would likely have been subjected to forced hormone therapy). There are a few other theories but the idea that he was driven to suicide because of "dangerous knowledge" is drawing a pretty long bow...

[Angler]

Alan Turing most probably committed suicide because of his homosexuality and the social/legal consequences of that at the time (he would likely have been subjected to forced hormone therapy). There are a few other theories but the idea that he was driven to suicide because of "dangerous knowledge" is drawing a pretty long bow...Hmmm...well, I don't know the story of Turing's life, but I'd think he would be able to avoid such consequences by simply staying in the closet rather than offing himself.

[Kodos]

There's a well-substantiated link between genius and mental illness (especially manic depression).

I think its generally true, my best friend in HS was sane (1600 SAT score MIT physics) but ive known two very high iq individuals well since then but both prone to depression and mood swings and both have become progressively worse alchoholics (ones a girl, she routinely takes exams drunk)...

[Ahknaton]

Hmmm...well, I don't know the story of Turing's life, but I'd think he would be able to avoid such consequences by simply staying in the closet rather than offing himself.
Homosexuals can be outed against their will. Someone with his level of security clearance would be under intense scrutiny of his private life because something like that would put them at risk of blackmail. He was in the closet most of his life. Given the timing of his suicide (after he had been convicted of homosexuality and sentenced to hormone therapy) it seems like a likely explanation, much more so than the notion that he couldn't handle the terrible truth of the Undecidability Theorem or something along those lines anyway.

[Angler]

Homosexuals can be outed against their will. Someone with his level of security clearance would be under intense scrutiny of his private life because something like that would put them at risk of blackmail. He was in the closet most of his life.Ah, okay. I wasn't aware of those circumstances in his life.

Given the timing of his suicide (after he had been convicted of homosexuality and sentenced to hormone therapy) it seems like a likely explanation, much more so than the notion that he couldn't handle the terrible truth of the Undecidability Theorem or something along those lines anyway.Yeah, that seems a bit more plausible.

"The terrible truth of the Undecidability Theorem" -- LOL

[Angler]

Come on, everyone who spends enough time around a homosexual knows that he is a homosexual even if he doesn't admit it. Whether he comes out or not is irrelevant.You can tell much of the time, but there are definitely exceptions. Some straight men act effeminate, and some homos act perfectly normal.

I remember seeing a TV program that showed a psychology experiment about this subject. The researchers wanted to know: how easy is it to tell if someone is homosexual? What they did was show videotapes of interviews with both straight and gay people to a number of viewers, and in each case the viewers were asked to guess whether the person being interviewed was gay (or a lesbian) or straight. IIRC, it was possible to tell from the person's voice and mannerisms about 75 percent of the time. Pure chance would, of course, yield an accuracy of 50 percent.

[Bronze Age Pervert]

I would object to the idea that the mathematician who is exclusively a mathematician can be a genius in general (even at the highest level) but of the ones mentioned, even if you grant that someone like Gauss or Galois are, Godel and Turing certainly don't qualify...they're merely persistent, pedantic hacks who are over-valued by the techie nerds that form a sort of priesthood in our society.

[Angler]

There are gradients when it comes to homosexuality. 90% of homosexual men are actually bisexual, it's only the 10%, or about 1.1% of society, who find the idea of kissing the opposite sex repulsive.No, there's a distinction between "homosexual" and "bisexual." A person can't be both. Also, I'm not sure where you're getting those numbers.

I would object to the idea that the mathematician who is exclusively a mathematician can be a genius in general (even at the highest level) but of the ones mentioned, even if you grant that someone like Gauss or Galois are, Godel and Turing certainly don't qualify...they're merely persistent, pedantic hacks who are over-valued by the techie nerds that form a sort of priesthood in our society.:tard:

[Baron_Corvo]

According to the introduction to John E. Littlewood's "A Mathematician's Miscellany", wriitten by his Cambridge colleague Bela Bollobas, Littlewood suffered from "an obscure nervous malady" (possibly some form of depression) between about 1930 and 1960. It obvously caused him considerable suffering but appears not to have affected his work at Cambridge though it did inhibit his trips abroad, especially to the US.

[Monty]

In this 90-minute BBC documentary, Dangerous Knowledge, David Malone takes a close look at four mathematicians – Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing – whose thinking profoundly influenced modern mathematics but also drove them (or so the program argues) to insanity and eventually suicide.

This is why that show NUMB3RS was so bogus. You had this Nice Jewish Boy who was an uber-math genius with a girlfriend and a life, There was nothing creepy about him, ever,