The Man Who Knew Infinity Life of the Genius Ramanuja Robert Kanigel 9780349104522 Books
Download As PDF : The Man Who Knew Infinity Life of the Genius Ramanuja Robert Kanigel 9780349104522 Books
The Man Who Knew Infinity Life of the Genius Ramanuja Robert Kanigel 9780349104522 Books
This is one of those books that you'd think I'd be the last person in the world to read. I once had a teacher who really liked me write me an award certificate for having achieved a C- in Algebra (I was an A student in all other subjects except, of course, PE). However, this is an example of non-fiction so well-written that the subject takes a back seat to the pleasure of reading, exploring a different world and seeing into a unique mind. Highly recommended. I've yet to see the film but Patel's one of my faves so I'm looking forward to it.Tags : The Man Who Knew Infinity : Life of the Genius Ramanuja [Robert Kanigel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In 1913, a young unschooled Indian clerk wrote a letter to G H Hardy, begging the pre-eminent English mathematician's opinion on several ideas he had about numbers. Realising the letter was the work of a genius,Robert Kanigel,The Man Who Knew Infinity : Life of the Genius Ramanuja,Time Warner Books Uk,0349104522,Biography: general,Philosophy of mathematics,BiographyAutobiography
The Man Who Knew Infinity Life of the Genius Ramanuja Robert Kanigel 9780349104522 Books Reviews
This book is about S. Ramanujan, a genius mathematician of India who has contributed many theories in the field of mathematics. The author has done an excellent attempt with research to present the life of this great mathematician. The author had done a good justice to describing how India was during those years. However, the book is not written in simple and clear language. Many places sentences are unnecessarily long; words too complicated. The language could have been simpler.
Also, the front page carries picture of the actor who was in the movie made with the same name. It should be of the genius man. So I am holding a star for this.
A superb, detailed and insightful treatment of the personalities of three great mathematicians, and of the interesting times
in which they lived. The mathematical information can easily be skipped if the reader is not keen on that sort of thing.
Also, it points out the many falsehoods contained in the visually beautiful film of the same name.
Excellent history, must read before seeing movie (or after seeing movie). Has incredible details about Ramanujans history, which are not shown in the movie. Explains much of the background events, and boyhood growth, and also the unbelievable genius behind this brain. Not until about the 1990's, was much of his mathematical genius verified via computerized means.
Well documented. An eye opener into the culture of South India. Full of real detail and input from other mathematicians with regard to Ramanushan's contributions. Read it after seeing the film. Filled in many details which could not ever be included in a 2 hour film.
For Rulers Priming Political Leaders for Saving Humanity from Itself
This is a fascinating book, as recognized by the many reviews. But I suggest a different perspective, namely the challenge posed by the mind of Srinivasa RAMANUJAN to the idea of “super-intelligent robots” which is at the core of what is appropriately called by Ray Kurzweil “Spiritual Machines” and “Singularity.”
Ramanujan was more that one of the few persons recognized as “geniuses.” He was a super-genius, “a man who grew up praying to stone deities; who for most of his life took counsel from a family goddess, declaring it was she to whom his mathematical insights were owed; whose theorems would, at intellectually backbreaking cost, be proved true—yet leave mathematicians baffled that anyone could divine them in the first place” (p. 4).
All mathematical creativity depends on inspiration and imagination, followed by strict proof. However the mental processes resulting in the radical breakthroughs of Ramanujan, despite his social circumstances and lack of minimal education, are on an unequalled level. This outstanding biography does not even try to explain them, nor do the top mathematicians with whom Ramanujan worked at Cambridge and who continue to draw radically novel ideas from his handwritten notebooks.
This brings me to current efforts to spawn robots with artificial general intelligence and, beyond them, robots with super-intelligence. But the phenomenon of Ramanujan (and a few other geniuses) is not only beyond the scales of intelligence, but above the concept of “intelligence” itself. No enhancement of human intelligence opens a door to becoming a Ramanujan; and no algorithm is likely to produce robots with the abilities of Ramanujan. This would require more than super-intelligence namely a quantum leap into what we do not understand and cannot even conceptualize.
Artificial intelligence experts will probably respond that progress will be in steps a somewhat super-intelligence entity will develop a more super-intelligent entity and so on, till “minds” of the quality of Ramanujan are understood, achieved and surpassed. But this is a weak hypothesis as long as the mind of Ramanujan remains totally a black box.
Thus Ramanujan posed a critical riddle to the idea of super-intelligent robots, whether with biological or mechanical substrata. Therefore, studying this book and pondering the challenge its subject presents is strongly recommended to philosophers, scientists and technologists working on advanced artificial intelligence and the Singularity hypothesis as a whole.
Professor Yehezkel Dror
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
I bought this book after seeing the film, although I have always been fascinated by the Ramanujan story.
The problems of adapting to postgraduate study, the culture shocks and the complex personality of Ramanujan are well portraited. However I would have wanted to read more on his work - the book is written very much for non-mathematicians.
The character of Hardy is beautifully developed. Indeed, the book is almost as much about Hardy as about Ramanujan. I am not sure if Hardy tamed Ramanujan or if he just canalized his inmense genius and energy to problems and fields where work could be jointly developed and published. To his great credit, Hardy also gave him critical support at difficult times. In any case it is hard to see what else could have been done. Without Hardy we would never have learned of Ramanujan, which speaks volumes about the Indian educational system and society at the time.
I hope that many elementary and secondary school teachers get to read this book. While most of the world is struggling to get children to learn the basics of mathematics, we cannot forget how important it is to detect and develop early talent. How many Ramanujans are today sitting in a classroom, thoroughly bored with elementary arithmetic taught by an unmotivated teacher?
I recommend anybody interested in this book to pick Hardy's "A Mathematician's Apology" as well.
This is one of those books that you'd think I'd be the last person in the world to read. I once had a teacher who really liked me write me an award certificate for having achieved a C- in Algebra (I was an A student in all other subjects except, of course, PE). However, this is an example of non-fiction so well-written that the subject takes a back seat to the pleasure of reading, exploring a different world and seeing into a unique mind. Highly recommended. I've yet to see the film but Patel's one of my faves so I'm looking forward to it.
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