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| ``Re: Erdos's work is useless''
by Algeboy on 2007-06-19 11:06:07 |
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| It is true that Erdos number don't prove anything, but that isn't the work do Erdos. I would suggest you look at works by Erdos and Kac, Erdos and Renyi, Alon, and others. Smart people don't copublish with idiots in general (I claim, though I have no proof). So I think any conjecture about the quality of Erdos' work is thus a conjecture about the quality of his coauthors and that is where your assumptoin seems to break down. These people have coveted posts at the best universities, they have Fields medals and various other significant awards. And to use your criterion, they have university degrees.
Timothy Gowers gave a wonderful lecture at the Clay institute about one of the contributions of Erdos with really surprising outcome.
http://www.claymath.org/annual_meeting/2000_Millennium_Event/Video/
The Erdos number thing is a fad perhaps, but it doesn't seem to have a negative outcome. For instance, it encourages collaboration which seems to get math done quicker and better. Unlike science, a lot of mathematician seem to have the assumption that a lone wolf can solve all the great problems. Solutions to problems like the classification of finite simple groups, the recent resolution of the character table of E_8, and many other problems show that this philosophy is not always the best. So if getting an Erdos number, or a lower one, encourages collaboration, then why not encourage it? |
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