Dangerous Knowledge

[Bóшù]

Dangerous Knowledge

In this 90-minute BBC documentary, Dangerous Knowledge, David Malone takes a close look at four mathematicians – Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing – whose thinking profoundly influenced modern mathematics but also drove them (or so the program argues) to insanity and eventually suicide. Cantor gave us “set theory.” Boltzmann made important contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics. Gödel is remembered for his incompleteness theorems. Turing built on Gödel’s work and laid the foundation for computer science. They all spent their difficult final years in various states of mental decline.

A very enjoyable documentary. It is amazing how some (edit) people as brilliant as them end up being mentally ill as a result of their own ideas.

 

[Archer]

Sounds like its quite biased to form a specific view, namely brilliant mathematicians/physicists go insane in their late years. I could name a whole bunch of brilliant people who never went insane as well.

 

[Bóшù]

Sounds like its quite biased to form a specific view, namely brilliant mathematicians/physicists go insane in their late years. I could name a whole bunch of brilliant people who never went insane as well.

Oh, it should not be seen as a blanket statement that all brilliant people end up bonkers (fixed it). It is just interesting to see how some ideas affect people's mental states. Or is it that mental states affected these people's ideas.... Oh crap, I think I am already becoming mad without being brilliant ...:wtf:

 

[Archer]

I think its just statistics. Think of how many non brilliant people are mad... Though yes, their brilliance may have had an influence but I would not say it is the leading cause

 

[Bóшù]

What makes this documentary interesting is the ideas of these great thinkers and how they are related. For example infinity and Canter's continuum hypothesis, entropy, the incompleteness theorem and the non-computability of certain problems. And then the mental stress it resulted in for these thinkers. Interesting and enjoyable documentary.