Дайсон о России

[posic]

http://www.ams.org/notices/200902/rtx090200212p.pdf
"To end this talk, I come back to Yuri Manin and his book Mathematics as Metaphor. The book is mainly about mathematics. It may come as a surprise to Western readers that he writes with equal eloquence about other subjects such as the collective unconscious, the origin of human language, the psychology of autism, and the role of trickster in the mythology of many cultures. To his compatriots in Russia, such many-sided interests and expertise would come as no surprise. Russian intellectuals maintain the proud tradition of the old Russian intelligentsia, with scientists and poets and artists and musicians belonging to a single community. They are still today, as we see them in the plays of Chekhov, a group of idealists bound together by their alienation from a superstitious society and a capricious government. In Russia, mathematicians and composers and film-producers talk to one another, walk together in the snow on winter nights, sit together over a bottle of wine, and share each others' thoughts."

Как интересно! Via avzel.

Comments

[chaource.livejournal.com]

Russian mathematicians, composers, and film producers are united in their love of vodka and the opposition to the reactionary government, -50 C temperatures all year round, and an overabundance of polar bears in the streets of Moscow.

[posic.livejournal.com]

So writes this great American physicist. Did he ever attempt discussing Yeltsin's or Putin's government with Russian mathematicians? I would say, quite a few of them supported Yeltsin, and the majority of them support Putin. Not to speak of the film producers, who live off money distributed by the capricious government (directly or indirectly).

[posic.livejournal.com]

Neither have I ever heard about Russian mathematicians spending time together with film producers. (Mathematicians talking with composers I can, at least, imagine).

[ivanov-rinov.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about the political views of modern Russian composers. As for mathematicians, perhaps the thoughts of their majority is similar to those of tiphareth.

[posic.livejournal.com]

No, tiphareth and kaledin must be very special cases. Myself is another very special case.

[posic.livejournal.com]

And of course, Manin is unique in the breadth of his interests (his expertise in humanities I cannot estimate).