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/sci/ - Science & Math

File: 139 KB, 1952x1365, 1-Terrence-Tao.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

9906325

Anonymous Tue Jul 31 11:46:25 2018 No.9906325 [Reply] [Original]

Is Terry Tao a meme?

People seem to think Terry Tao is some kind of superhuman genius, the Mozart of math, with an unparalleled breadth and depth of understanding of math, the greatest mathematician alive, etc. Some people seem to think Terry is the next Gauss or Euler or something. Is he a genius who has a lot of results related to many different areas? Of course. But to be honest many of his results are underwhelming or overhyped. Take the Green-Tao Theorem. It's just a generalization of Szemeredi's theorem conjoined with someone else's result about primes in order to make a flashy result for the headline. He doesn't have a big result like Wiles or Perelman. Compressed sensing for example is also over-hyped, maybe even _because_ Terry Tao was a coauthor on an important paper. It has not found much use in applications since it is hard to implement, often inapplicable, it is easier to do traditional sampling based _a la_ Shannon which is what you will see if you look at what is taught in EE departments, even at MIT.

>>

Anonymous Tue Jul 31 12:10:38 2018 No.9906368

>>9906325
He got famous because he was a child prodigy. He's a very good mathematician, but not exactly the Mozart of mathematics.

Yes, normalfags don't know what they're talking about and latch onto whatever figure they find agreeable. So what? Shit thread.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 13:37:20 2018 No.9906541 File: 28 KB, 601x508, 2f7.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9906325 I can shit on this guy any time.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 13:46:12 2018 No.9906560 >>9906325 stop trying to hype these people like moviestars, it's not going to accomplish anything but spoil their egos

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 13:53:31 2018 No.9906570 He's no Jacob Barnet, that's for sure

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Anonymous Tue Jul 31 13:53:46 2018 No.9906571

>>9906325
>Compressed sensing for example is also over-hyped, maybe even _because_ Terry Tao was a coauthor on an important paper. It has not found much use in applications since it is hard to implement, often inapplicable, it is easier to do traditional sampling based _a la_ Shannon which is what you will see if you look at what is taught in EE departments, even at MIT.

I had a course last semester that had us implement compressed sensing and it wasn't even hard

>>

Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:10:07 2018 No.9906604

>>9906325
You're basing the success of mathematicians on the wholly different scale of prolific contribution. People generally rate Tao as great because he has (and still is) been extremely talented in mathematics since birth. Think about it, the dude was learning calculus at seven, while most other people at that age were struggling with multiplication. Now, when you take the media, which loves to print that great sensationalist story whenever they can, then it becomes really simple as to why Tao got so much attention. Sure, you can probably "place" Tao below Euler or Gauss if you want to purely look at their contribution to math, but you can't really knock Tao for the skill he has possessed since infancy for solving problems and learning concepts. Tao was on the Von Neumann tier of mathematical prodigy, and still remains today as one of the most skilled researchers in his field, despite the lack of "big results" that you are choosing to exclusively look at.

tl;dr He is popular because he was a prodigy and is still extremely skilled in mathematics today

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:12:41 2018 No.9906609 File: 47 KB, 500x500, Terry Tao.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9906325 >Is Terry Tao a meme? Yes. ... But Einstein & Tesla are also memes.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:15:27 2018 No.9906622 for compressed sensing alone he is bazillion times less of a meme than his fellow poor mathematicians

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:20:58 2018 No.9906637 >>9906325 Terry Tao is the best mathematician alive besides Roger Penrose But All mathematicians alive sucks compared to Gauss or Euler. Today Mathematicians should be ashamed for that. The last great mathematicians were Grothendieck & Von Neumann.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:25:45 2018 No.9906654 >>9906570 haha

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:27:19 2018 No.9906658 Most genius seems a bit overhyped to me.

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Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:29:15 2018 No.9906668
File: 320 KB, 800x800, Grigori Perelman.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>9906325
The Hobo Mathematician called
Grigori Perelman is more meme

Perelman solved a Millennium Problem (Poincare Conjecture) but rejected the prize.

But being a Meme doesn't mean that He isn't great.
Although Perelman still a Hobo after all.

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Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:34:12 2018 No.9906680
File: 63 KB, 1200x960, Cédric Villani.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>9906325
This French Cédric Villani is a Huge Meme too.
Villani's eccentric outfil looks literally Gay.

But this Faggot won a Fields Medal.
I respect his mind brilliance,
but He still looks very ... very Gay.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:41:53 2018 No.9906694 >>9906570 Based

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:47:53 2018 No.9906710 >>9906325 Tao is this generation's Von Neumann. Sure they're good, but they don't exactly shift paradigms and shouldn't be hailed as such.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:48:54 2018 No.9906715 File: 466 KB, 743x619, Jacob Barnett the Autist.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9906570 >>9906654 >>9906694 Please be patient, Jacob Barnet has Autism

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 14:54:44 2018 No.9906736 File: 9 KB, 250x229, 30yo boomer.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9906570 >>9906710 Among mathematicians Terence Tao is the best Millennial 17yo autist called Jacob Barnet belong to the next generation after millennials.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 15:24:41 2018 No.9906810 >>9906325 Why do the best mathematicians always look weird? Like this one's appearance is arguably normal, and yet the shape of that hair on his forehead is something you'll never see again.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 15:29:08 2018 No.9906823 File: 135 KB, 780x779, Edward Witten Forehead.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9906810 >shape of ... his forehead Witten has a better & larger [math]\mathcal{FOREHEAD}[/math/

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 15:30:09 2018 No.9906827 File: 32 KB, 400x382, Smug Ed Witten.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9906810 >shape of ... his forehead Edward Witten has a better & larger [math]\mathcal{FOREHEAD}[/math]

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 15:32:33 2018 No.9906832 File: 135 KB, 780x779, Edward Witten Forehead.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9906827 t. Large Forehead [math]\mathcal{PHENOTYPE}[/math]

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 16:36:18 2018 No.9906943 File: 557 KB, 245x250, TRINITY___MulderTheory.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 16:37:19 2018 No.9906946 File: 91 KB, 1280x720, TRINITY_Criticism1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 20:05:52 2018 No.9907340 File: 734 KB, 1920x1080, frenchflag.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9906680 >but He still looks very ... very Gay. He's French though so I think he gets a pass Pic somewhat related

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 20:12:03 2018 No.9907347 >>9906368 >Yes, normalfags don't know what they're talking about and latch onto whatever figure they find agreeable What do you know? You're no Einstein.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 22:40:46 2018 No.9907585 >>9906325 Lrn2meme fgt pls

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 23:17:59 2018 No.9907653 >>9906810 >Why do the best mathematicians always look weird? Because they are not Normies.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 31 23:29:16 2018 No.9907679 File: 38 KB, 700x467, monsieur-villainy.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9906680 He looks like a pug.

>>	Anonymous Wed Aug 1 04:56:10 2018 No.9908039 >>9906680 He looks like a hobo who stole the outfit from a rich corpse.

>>	Anonymous Wed Aug 1 19:47:39 2018 No.9909684 >>9907340 This. Cedric's a cool guy