Welcome to Mathyrious!!! This website is a little project of mine to present pure mathematics to a non-specialist audience. As someone who loves pure mathematics despite falling into the non-specialist category, I think I can add a perspective that might be lost on those to whom much of mathematics seems “obvious.”
I will be
writing for this website under the pseudonym “Albert Smithereens.” Those familiar with cinema likely know the name “Alan Smithee” has frequently been used by producers and directors who, for whatever reason, chose to cloak their participation in a particular project. My use of “Albert Smithereens” is a bit of a pun since my little project will likely be blown up on at least a few occasions. Thus, my chosen surname seems appropriate.
I do want to make it very clear that I am not a mathematician and do not claim to be some unrecognized savant or misunderstood genius. I would classify myself as an amateur enthusiast of pure mathematics who is now retired and has too much free time on his hands. It just so happens that I find pure mathematics exciting, often surprising, and, dare I say, beautiful. I came to this revelation through a similar amateur’s interest in the philosophy of science that led me to read Douglas R. Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. This gave rise to an interest in the foundations of mathematics and led me to study mathematical logic. It was then that I first glimpsed what lies “under the hood” of pure mathematics.
While I considered pursuing graduate studies in mathematics, life interfered, and I went in another direction. As I am now in my “golden years,” the desire to explore this topic further has returned. This website will be
This website is dedicated to surveying the web of pure mathematics for non-specialists. Pure mathematics is often represented as a highly rigid discipline associated more with mechanical processes than moments of inspiration. This mischaracterization is reinforced by the manner in which the topic of mathematics has been taught within primary, secondary, and university curricula. One goal I have is to dispel this erroneous presentation of the subject.
In the subtitle of this website, I refer to pure mathematics as a “web” to emphasize its organic growth. Those who have studied advanced areas of pure mathematics understand better how the subject behaves as an organism by evolving new forms while transmitting knowledge to all its constituent parts.
As you might guess from this website’s main title (Mathyrious is a conflation of “mathematics” and “mysterious”), I have always been mystified by mathematics. In particular, what has been termed “pure mathematics” strikes me as simultaneously bizarre and fascinating. How is it that an activity conducted as an elaborate game set in an imaginary world we create can, decades or even centuries later, supply the key ingredient in solving problems never imagined when the rules of the game were first set down? This has been expressed more succinctly by philosophers of science as the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences.”
I am writing for this website under the pseudonym “Albert Smithereens.” Those familiar with cinema likely know the name “Alan Smithee” has frequently been used by producers and directors who, for whatever reason, chose to cloak their participation in a particular project. My use of “Albert Smithereens” is a bit of a pun since my little project will likely be blown to my chosen surname.
I do want to make it clear that I am not a mathematician and do not claim to be some unrecognized savant or misunderstood genius. I would classify myself as an amateur enthusiast of pure mathematics who is now retired and has too much free time on his hands. It just so happens that I find pure mathematics exciting, often surprising, and, dare I say, beautiful. I came to this revelation through a similar amateur’s interest in the philosophy of science that led me to read Douglas R. Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. This gave rise to an interest in the foundations of mathematics and led me to study mathematical logic. It was then that I first glimpsed what lies “under the hood” of pure mathematics.
While I considered pursuing graduate studies in mathematics, life interfered, and I went in another direction. As I am now in my “golden years,” the desire to explore this topic further has returned. I plan to go on a journey through pure mathematics to understand what lies at the heart of the subject and to use a blog as my journal of that exploration. Once I have enough thoughts on a topic collected, I will post a more formal account of my conclusions in notes published elsewhere on this website.
If you have a similar interest in understanding pure mathematics, please join me and compare your conclusions to mine. However, I am even more interested in reaching out to those who have been put off by their own past experiences with mathematics courses. Thus, this will be essentially a project of a non-specialist reaching out to other non-specialists.
As I progress in this project, my opinions on disputed topics may change. Since the blog chronicles my journey to understand pure mathematics, these earlier opinions will remain. However, I may add a footnote identifying the change in viewpoint. The more formal conclusions presented in the notes should be understood as the current state of “works in progress” and are subject to change.
The blog will begin in early 2025.
– Albert Smithereens
