[Fis] Fwd: Tough question: Decolonizing mathematics?

Mon Feb 6 19:25:02 CET 2023

Dear FIS Colleagues, in a parallel discussion some interesting mails 
have been exchanged around the ideological trends taken off in many 
sciences, maths included. See Plamen's below. Tomorrow I will enter 
another couple of messages (from Kauffman and Baars, if they have no 
inconvenient).

Regards--Pedro

-------- Mensaje reenviado --------
Asunto: 	Re: Tough question: Decolonizing mathematics?
Fecha: 	Mon, 6 Feb 2023 15:02:34 +0100
De: 	Dr. Plamen L. Simeonov <plamen.l.simeonov at gmail.com>
Para: 	Giuseppe Longo <Giuseppe.Longo at ens.fr>
CC: 	Bernard Baars <baarsbj at gmail.com>, Bruno Marchal 
<bruno.marchal at insas.be>, Louis Kauffman <loukau at gmail.com>, Ralph 
Abraham <abraham at vismath.org>, Andree EHRESMANN <acehres at wanadoo.fr>, 
Maël Montévil <mael.montevil at gmail.com>, Joseph Brenner 
<joe.brenner at bluewin.ch>, pedroc.marijuan at gmail.com, Ted Goranson 
<tedgoranson at me.com>, Marcin SCHROEDER <mjs at gl.aiu.ac.jp>, Gordana Dodig 
Crnkovic <gordana.dodig-crnkovic at chalmers.se>, Leslie Smith 
<l.s.smith at cs.stir.ac.uk>, Ronald Brown <ronniegpd50 at gmail.com>, Madan 
Thangavelu <madan.thangavelu5 at gmail.com>, fis <fis at listas.unizar.es>, 
Brian Josephson <bdj10 at cam.ac.uk>

Dear Giuseppe,

thank you so much for this wonderful paper on imagination, Renaissance 
art and mathematics! I wish it could be attached to our recent FIS NY 
discussion session on the roots of modern civilization. (Pedro, could 
you attach Giuseppe's email to it, please?) I am sorry that I did not 
invite you to participate in this session, Giuseppe. Of course, these 
concepts of beauty and (hidden) order are not only of European origin 
only. That's why I said earlier that mathematics must be communicated to 
young scholars as an inclusive discipline from its very beginning. We 
know that the Library of Alexandria was in Egypt. Who knows how many 
treasures were lost by this silly act of the early Christians who burned 
it, so we had to recover and adopt much of the lost roots of earlier 
cultures (medicine, poetry, astrology and mathematics) from the Persians 
like Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Omar Khayamm 
(https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0gP_tBS8$  
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0gP_tBS8$ >), and Saadi 
Shirazi (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_Shirazi__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0kgk1Djm$  
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_Shirazi__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0kgk1Djm$ >) and the Arabs in the 
Middle Ages who stayed for a while in Spain. Also, the genius of 20th 
century Srinivasa Ramanujan 
(https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0l_vSCIL$  
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0l_vSCIL$ >), the man who knew 
infinity (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXGm9Vlfx4w__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0j07horA$  
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXGm9Vlfx4w__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0j07horA$ >), has inherited much of 
his unconventional thinking and problem solving methods from his native 
culture. We need to preserve and provide the deserved tribute to every 
participant of our world's cultural inheritance. Earlier generations of 
European mathematicians and other scientists were indeed much more 
tolerant to newcomers from other fields and geographic regions than the 
DEI bureaucrats occupying the faculties of the ivory league universities 
in the USA and UK today 
(https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.foxnews.com/media/professor-white-people-become-less-damaging-dismantle-whiteness__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0pFj4ddf$  
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.foxnews.com/media/professor-white-people-become-less-damaging-dismantle-whiteness__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0pFj4ddf$ >). 

Knowledge and wisdom in science have always been all-inclusive and do 
not need special ideological programs. Just as in music, literature, 
theatre and art they provide the link to higher dimensions of human 
virtues and spiritual evolution which go beyond finite state machine 
automation and control, so highly appreciated with AI these days. Coming 
back to the roots of past cultural inventions on all continents is what 
would help us resolve the tight knots of the present.  Maybe also 
forgotten ancient Inca' quipu' techniques could be part of future modes 
for highly effective mathematics and (quantum) computation. Yet, the 
first thing a modern Vitruvian Man needs to revolt against are Middle 
Ages 2.0 we are facing today because of these realities:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https*3A*2F*2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com*2Fpublic*2Fimages*2F0a59d2cd-05aa-4c0b-97ba-493303b7bf98_866x890.png?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email__;JSUlJSUl!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0kLTGQnx$  
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https*3A*2F*2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com*2Fpublic*2Fimages*2F0a59d2cd-05aa-4c0b-97ba-493303b7bf98_866x890.png?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email__;JSUlJSUl!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0kLTGQnx$ >
We need to restructure and educate first again, if we wish to not let 
the beauty of mathematics and science be lost.

Have a great week,

Plamen

On Sun, Feb 5, 2023 at 10:31 AM Giuseppe Longo <Giuseppe.Longo at ens.fr 
<mailto:Giuseppe.Longo at ens.fr>> wrote:

    sometimes blends are very fruitful: the invention of the first
    symbolic form of actual (and mathematical) infinity and of
    mathematical space was a theologico-pictorial gesture, in D.
    Arasse's words:

    G. Longo, Sara Longo. Infinity of God and Space of Men in Painting,
    Conditions of Possibility for the Scientific Revolution.In
    ‘‘*Mathematics in the Visual Arts*’’ (R. Scheps and M.-C. Maurel
    ed.), ISTE-WILEY Ltd, London, 2020

    https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.di.ens.fr/users/longo/files/InfinitySpaceMenLoLo.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0k0kfWUo$ 
    <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.di.ens.fr/users/longo/files/InfinitySpaceMenLoLo.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0k0kfWUo$ >

    Best regards

    -- 

    Giuseppe Longo

    web page <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.di.ens.fr/users/longo__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0ka_MvwB$ >, downloadable papers
    <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.di.ens.fr/users/longo/download.html__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0jo1nDNe$ >,

    Centre Cavaillès, République des Savoirs, CNRS et Ecole Normale
    Supérieure, Paris,

    Association des amis de la génération Thunberg
    <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://generation-thunberg.org/accueil__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0oAQSxY3$ > (AAGT), président

    European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental
    Responsibility <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://ensser.org/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0ouksNzB$ > (ENSSER)

    Association Cardano <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://cardano.visions-des-sciences.eu/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!VMhuQTUJudd2clSvQViANpqOK3hU10POkj-g4vozhxYSICPQCTOoPttWLl4w6C3JoISspxBZOht8o6jOy1WH0qqFn7Bd$ >

-- 
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