"Mathematics is supposed to be a Wikipedia-like undertaking," from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/weekinreview/27johnson.html
It is funny to me that Wikipedia is showing up more and more in these contexts.
[[User:Makemi]]
On 28/08/06, Mak makwik@gmail.com wrote:
"Mathematics is supposed to be a Wikipedia-like undertaking," from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/weekinreview/27johnson.html It is funny to me that Wikipedia is showing up more and more in these contexts.
The whole sentence is an interesting view of what we do as well: "Mathematics is supposed to be a Wikipedia-like undertaking, with thousands of self-effacing scriveners quietly laboring over a great self-correcting text."
And the next: "But in any endeavor — literature, art, science, theology — a celebrity system develops and egos get in the way."
- d.
On 8/28/06, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
The whole sentence is an interesting view of what we do as well: "Mathematics is supposed to be a Wikipedia-like undertaking, with thousands of self-effacing scriveners quietly laboring over a great self-correcting text."
And the next: "But in any endeavor — literature, art, science, theology — a celebrity system develops and egos get in the way."
Taking that naively, it sounds like they're holding Wikipedia up as the ideal - free from these problems - and mathematics as its flawed application?
Steve