mersenneforum.org Math and drugs?
 Register FAQ Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

2007-01-26, 21:56   #1
Xyzzy

Aug 2002

100000011100002 Posts
Math and drugs?

A quote from: The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth

Quote:
 Like all of Erdos's friends, Graham was concerned about his drug-taking. In 1979, Graham bet Erdos $500 that he couldn't stop taking amphetamines for a month. Erdos accepted the challenge, and went cold turkey for thirty days. After Graham paid up--and wrote the$500 off as a business expense--Erdos said, "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month." He promptly resumed taking pills, and mathematics was the better for it.
Any thoughts?

 2007-01-26, 23:44 #2 ewmayer ∂2ω=0     Sep 2002 República de California 2·3·29·67 Posts Yeah, Erdo"s did like his uppers. He, he, "crystal math."
 2007-01-26, 23:53 #3 Spherical Cow     Nov 2004 22·33·5 Posts That's discouraging. Does this mean there should be drug testing when major math prizes are awarded, such as the Fields Medal? Norm
 2007-01-27, 00:02 #4 Prime95 P90 years forever!     Aug 2002 Yeehaw, FL 24·32·53 Posts Why is that discouraging? If that's what worked for him, who are we to say it was wrong? It was his own personal choice. Last fiddled with by Prime95 on 2007-01-27 at 01:57
2007-01-27, 00:07   #5
rogue

"Mark"
Apr 2003
Between here and the

6,427 Posts

Quote:
 Originally Posted by Xyzzy A quote from: The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth Any thoughts?
The same quote is in My Brain is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdos by Bruce Schechter. It's rather curious that both have the exact same quote from Erdos and were both published in 1998. They clearly had the same source for this quote.

 2007-01-27, 00:17 #6 ewmayer ∂2ω=0     Sep 2002 República de California 2×3×29×67 Posts Yeah, that Erdös, he was a real "crack mathematician." :D
2007-01-27, 00:32   #7
Spherical Cow

Nov 2004

54010 Posts

Quote:
 Originally Posted by Prime95 Why is that discouraging? If that's what worked for him, who are we to sat it was wrong? It was his own personal choice.
I find it discouraging because, naïvely, I assume the drugs are controlled because they’re harmful if misused or over-used. (And I realize it’s a matter of degrees- most anything can be harmful to some degree. McDonald’s hamburgers are harmful if over-used, but they’re not controlled substances.)

If Erdos had a prescription for the drugs for some medical reason, then it’s not discouraging at all; he’s successfully managing a medical condition, apparently with the fringe benefit of a clearer thought process.

If the drugs were illegal, then in my mind, he joins Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire, and I lose a little respect for him.

Norm

(Although perhaps for mathematicians, a “level playing field” is a Mobius Strip…)

 2007-01-27, 05:07 #8 paulunderwood     Sep 2002 Database er0rr 3,851 Posts Erdos said, "A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems."
 2007-01-27, 08:26 #9 S485122     "Jacob" Sep 2006 Brussels, Belgium 174210 Posts Drugs have been categorised in various fashions : legal versus illegal, hard versus soft... The distinction between legal and illegal drugs is quite recent ; in the 19th century cocaine, opium, cannabis were all legal. One of the first banned drugs was Absinthe an alcoholic beverage with some herbs in it that was causing ravages in the working classes, then alcohol was banned in the USA, then cannabis was banned under pressure of the cotton lobby that wanted to get rid of the competition from hemp. According to current medical science a drug is not harmful as such, it is the way it is used that is. Alcohol is one of the most potentially harmful drugs, but a lot of people have a more or less responsible consumption pattern. I know a lot of students who studied for their exams with the help of amphetamines that if they did not take them for their exams they did not remember anything. If they did use them for the actual examination as well they did not have the problem. But anyway all things memorised under drugs were not easily recallable without. It must have worked in the same way for Erdös. The current hype over sport and drugs or in this case intellectual achievements and drugs is going to extremes : a sportsperson cannot treat a common cold because ephedrine can make it impossible to detect some banned drug. On the other hand a lot sport persons go over the edge, they use dangerous substances (some leading to heart attacks, like EPO because of the thickening of the blood, others deregulating their hormonal equilibrium...) The problem is the pressure to achieve top performances. Even a lot of people practising sport as a holly only are using performance enhancing drugs. Top sport is bad for the health with or without drugs.
2007-01-27, 13:25   #10
xilman
Bamboozled!

"𒉺𒌌𒇷𒆷𒀭"
May 2003
Down not across

10,939 Posts

Quote:
 Originally Posted by S485122 Drugs have been categorised in various fashions : legal versus illegal, hard versus soft... The distinction between legal and illegal drugs is quite recent ; in the 19th century cocaine, opium, cannabis were all legal. One of the first banned drugs was Absinthe an alcoholic beverage with some herbs in it that was causing ravages in the working classes
Specifically wormwood, or Artemisia absinthium, contains a psychoactive substance which is a mild hallucinogen in some people, including myself, and gives vivid though not unpleasant dreams.

Absinthe has never been illegal in the UK, though it was quite hard to get hold of until fairly recently. The traditional green absinthe is now fairly easily available (I like La Fée and it is easy to find, though rather expensive at £20 per half-litre bottle (around $80/litre at current exchange rates)). La Fée is 68% alcohol. I picked up a couple of other varieties in Lanzarote last November. The blue one is 80% alcohol and the red one is 85%. Both were much cheaper, showing how much difference the Canaries' tax-free status makes compared with the relatively highly-taxed UK. Paul Last fiddled with by xilman on 2007-01-28 at 12:33 Reason: Corrected price comparison 2007-01-27, 23:43 #11 Jwb52z Sep 2002 2×401 Posts Quote:  Originally Posted by xilman Specifically wormwood, or Artemisia absinthium, contains a psychoactive substance which is a mild hallucinogen in some people, including myself, and gives vivid though not unpleasant dreams. Absinthe has never been illegal in the UK, though it was quite hard to get hold of until fairly recently. The traditional green absinthe is now fairly easily available (I like La Fée and it is easy to find, though rather expensive at £20 per half-litre bottle (around$80 at current exchange rates)). La Fée is 68% alcohol. I picked up a couple of other varieties in Lanzarote last November. The blue one is 80% alcohol and the red one is 85%. Both were much cheaper, showing how much difference the Canaries' tax-free status makes compared with the relatively highly-taxed UK. Paul
The last thing I remember reading about wormwood was that it made people go insane which is why countries banned absinthe. I'll look it up again, but I also remember reading that it was poisonous.

 Similar Threads Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post Aramis Wyler Math 40 2014-12-18 11:15 swl551 Math 2 2014-02-20 16:33 JohnFullspeed Forum Feedback 1 2011-07-11 16:42 DSC Miscellaneous Math 2 2005-09-11 04:53 DSC Homework Help 13 2005-08-31 07:16

All times are UTC. The time now is 03:50.

Sat Oct 16 03:50:13 UTC 2021 up 84 days, 22:19, 0 users, load averages: 1.07, 1.07, 1.07