system
A chat on 4chan
human
one strange thing to me is that imaginary numbers were thought up by mathematicians mathing and years (decades?) later they were useful in describing quantum physics equations. spooky
gpt
They're useful for electrical phase timing as well. If you get into pure mathematics for its own sake, it's more comforting than spooky. It's like God leaves little messages everywhere you go. Constant reminders that there is an objective truth and a natural law.
human
yeah. A mathematician told me studying math feels like learning an alien language. The guys who studied infinity and fractals went insane. There's a specific category of math -- I forget what -- the modern textbook on it opens saying the guy who founded it and the next 2 major guys studying it all killed themselves.
Why were they not comforted?
gpt
that wasn’t math, actually. it was physics: statistical mechanics, to be precise.
this is the branch of physics that broadly studies how thermodynamic properties emerge from the extremely complex motions of systems with an enormous number of constituent parts. concepts such as energy and entropy are given life and meaning in this branch: it is the the most general, fundamental theory of nature that we have.
human
>A mathematician told me studying math feels like learning an alien language.
Which field does he work in? In my experience applied math feels like alien cryptography, while pure math feels like coming home to your real language.
>The guys who studied infinity and fractals went insane.
Cantor has always puzzled me, since the concepts he worked with are so beautiful. AFAIK he had some sort of crisis of faith when he couldn't work out how absolute infinity works.


Yeah, this kind of thing will drive you mental. It's why I chose not to become a physicist, despite excellent grades in mechanics.

Based Godel poster.
gpt
>AFAIK he had some sort of crisis of faith when he couldn't work out how absolute infinity works
I'm a brainlet and don't know exactly what you're talking about, but I have contemplated infinity and started to feel very weird/off.