Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ll-xn!mit-eddie!husc6!husc4!primer_b From: primer_b@husc4.harvard.edu (jeremy primer) Newsgroups: sci.misc,talk.politics.misc Subject: Re: military funding in mathematics Message-ID: <561@husc6.HARVARD.EDU> Date: Thu, 30-Oct-86 19:12:16 EST Article-I.D.: husc6.561 Posted: Thu Oct 30 19:12:16 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 31-Oct-86 03:20:53 EST References: <48@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> <73600001@uiucdcsp> <146@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> Sender: news@husc6.HARVARD.EDU Reply-To: primer@husc4.harvard.edu (jeremy primer) Distribution: na Organization: Harvard Math Department Lines: 53 Xref: mnetor sci.misc:61 talk.politics.misc:680 In article <146@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> gsmith@brahms (Gene Ward Smith) writes: >In article <73600001@uiucdcsp> ashby@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > >>What I criticize is [Thurston's] injection of politics into a technical >>notesfiles. I believe Thurston could have made his posting in an unbiased >>way, while still soliciting the comments he wants. > > If computer scientists are welcome to post to sci.math, does it not >seem reasonable that mathematicians should be welcome to post *brief* >articles which are of interest to fellow mathematicians? There was, after >all, no better place (certainly not talk.politics!) to put it. Political >commentary and "What's New?" stuff is a regular feature of sci.physics. >Why should it be banned on sci.math because it upsets the delicate conservative >political sensibilities of a few non-mathematicians? Speaking personally, I >was delighted to see Bill Thurston starting to post to sci.math. I think it >would be very unfortunate if hostile attitudes expressed by non-mathematicians >were to cause him to cease posting. > >ucbvax!brahms!gsmith Gene Ward Smith/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720 Thank you Gene Ward Smith. You were perhaps too apologetic, because most serious and thinking people have no need for the facade of non-bias that passes for objectivity in most American discourse. Mr. Ashby's main goal here was to provide some conservative propa- ganda (in the form of pseudo-moralistic objections) to counter the liberal bias in Mr. Thurston's posting. I found Bill Thurston's posting far more substantive, because his main point was not that "we liberal mathematicians object to SDI," but that pure mathema- ticians had best not pass their purse-strings on to military bean-counters or ideologues. He wrote sincerely about some issues which involve him directly, no mere second-hand interpretation of events, and he put it in the one place where the largest number of other involved people would see it. If Mr. Ashby has any comparable REAL interest in computer science funding, or in the relationship between computer science and mathematics, I wish he would tell us all about it, and then perhaps we will take him more seriously. Here's what I mean, taking myself as guinea pig: I receive funding to do graduate work in mathematics and obtained it through a civilian peer review process. I have turned down a job offer requiring a minor security clearance to avoid the unnecessary restrictions it would entail. I have read papers by Professor Thurston concerning geometry, computer science, military funding. I look forward to being able to obtain a teaching job at a major university in about four years without being pressured to enrich my employer by applying for grants from military agencies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeremy Primer primer@husc4.harvard.EDU Department of Mathematics primer%husc4@harvard.ARPA 1 Oxford Street primer@harvsc4.BITNET Cambridge, MA 02138 ...!harvard!husc4!primer