Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihlpa.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!ihlpa!lew From: lew@ihlpa.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) Newsgroups: net.math Subject: Nova's Mathematical Mystery Tour Message-ID: <143@ihlpa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 6-Mar-85 12:22:12 EST Article-I.D.: ihlpa.143 Posted: Wed Mar 6 12:22:12 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 7-Mar-85 05:13:12 EST Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 17 I watched the title show last night and found it interesting mainly for the chance to see some famous mathematicians whose names I'd heard. In particular Raymond Smullyan, Paul Erdos, and Rene Thom, as well as a member of Bourbaki, whose name I didn't know. They didn't say anything about catastrophe theory, incidentally. They showed Smullyan talking to a high school class and I was surprised to hear him proclaim that most mathematicians were Platonists and believed that the Continuum hypothesis "either was or wasn't true". He compared it to the question of whether a bridge could carry a certain load. Either it would or it wouldn't, regardless of whether you had the tools to "decide" the case abstractly. I thought that mathematicians accepted that you could take your pick, but Smullyan put these in the minority. Is this a reflection of the "constructionist" schism? Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihlpa!lew