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Rating the quality of bogs and websites
Posted:
Nov 5, 2009 4:50 AM
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The best and the worst
When I was a newcomer in mathematics and science (my first publication is ?The solution of the
gravitational n-body problem?, Nonlinear Analysis, Series A, 30(8), Dec. 1997, 521 ? 532), I was an underdog in the contention of ideas with the heavy weights of science and mathematics. Therefore, I had to disseminate my ideas broadly as quickly as possible. The first forum I posted my message in was SciMath, 1997, and the topic was the equality 1 = 0.99? I said that this was really nonsense and I explain why later.
There was a howl of protest and hundreds of messages were posted in protest during the year. Some called me crackpot, lunatic, moron, etc. One even wrote my colleague (who sort of discovered me in mathematics), Prof. V. Lakshmikantham, a famous mathematician who founded the only rapidly expanding field of mathematics today, Nonlinear Analysis, founder and editor-in-chief of several scientific journals, president and founder of the International Federation of Nonlinear Analysts, and chairman of the World Congress of Nonlinear Analysts that gather 1,600 mathematicians and scientists every four years to tell him that he was a lunatic for associating with me. There were at least five such guys in SciMath. However, in due course they pulled enough rope to hang themselves with academically and are all quiet now.
Going back to 1 = 0.99?, it was David Hilbert who recognized almost a century ago that the concepts of individual thought, being inaccessible to others, are ambiguous and cannot be discussed, studied and analyzed collectively. Therefore, they cannot be the subject matter of mathematics. The proper subject matter of mathematics must be objects in the real world, e.g., symbols that we also call concepts that everyone can look at provided they are subject to consistent premises or axioms. Clearly, 1 and 0.99? are distinct objects like apple and orange and to say apple = orange is simply nonsense.
As it will turn out SciMath is the best forum in this category in terms of open participation and, naturally, diversity of ideas. The worst in this category, however, is Wikipedia along with its sister website Wikia. Wikipedia requires consensus on posted topic. In other words, it requires uniformity of thought. Wikia specifically bars original research. In effect, they block the progress of science and mathematics which do not thrive on consensus and stands on original research. Between these two extremes the blogs and websites range from good to excellent in terms of diversity of ideas with the only exception of HaloScan and its sister website, DLMSY, which cannot stand contrary opinion. Consequently, they lose bloggers. I identify a few excellent ones in the category of in-betweens: False Proofs, MathForge, WorldPress and Faces of the Moon. I add Knowledgerush in terms of ease in posting ? no need for username and password which are easy to forget.
However, there is a forum that is a class by itself in terms of the quality and level of intellectual discussion: ISCID (International Society for Computing and Intelligent Design (?)). I recommend experts to visit this website.
E. E. Escultura
Research Professor
Lakshmikantham Institute for Advanced Studies and Departments of Mathematics and Physics
GVP College of Engineering, JNT University, Visakhapatnam, AP, India
URL: http://users.tpg.com.au/pidro/
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