[FOM] My latest opinion

[Anatoly Vorobey]

On Sun, Nov 09, 2003 at 01:04:07PM -0500, Doron Zeilberger wrote:
> Dear FOM,
>  Harvey Friedman asked me to contribute to this intriguing
> and stimulating forum. I have just posted my latest
> opinion
> http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/Opinion57.html
> 
>   and wonder if any of you have feedback from your foundational
> point of view.

I think you're completely missing the point on why Hardy thinks
chess is trivial (thereby rendering most of your trashing of Hardy 
irrelevant). It's not because chess is finite, unlike number theory 
or real analysis or what have you; it's because the rules of chess are 
incidental. A chess problem does not give rise to nontrivial mathematics 
because it is governed by incidental (and historically accidental) rules
which are very unlikely to connect in any meaningful way to the existing
body of mathematics, much less to enrich it or to contribute to it. 
While I don't have Hardy's Apology in front of me, I seem to remember 
that he says  something to that effect, and I really don't think he 
dismisses chess as trivial because of its finiteness. 

--
Anatoly Vorobey
mellon at pobox.com




 

>      -Doron Zeilberger
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