On Thursday 18 September 2003 11:34 pm, you wrote:> What about creating a
fund for the perfect flute....the shakuhachi
> equivalent of the Manhattan Project. I'm willing to make a small
> contribution. Any other takers?
>
A prize would be good! There are some historical precedents. I belive some
one or some institution (i'd have to check) offered big mula prizes for
solutions of David Hilbert's (famous mathematician) list of the most
important problems
to be solved back at the beginning of the last century. I think the score is
something like 4 down,3 to go...
Kip Thorn (I believe) won a dollar off of steven Hawking when "proof" of
the existence of black holes what found.
And I think there was some such award given to big blue when a computer first
beat a world chess champion.
Nelson came up (off line) with the most succinc and precise versions of what
several of us had been talking about off line. Pretty close to being
statable as mathematical theorems to be proved of disproved (I 'll let him
tell you about it if he wan't to after he has a nap).
Someone has to bet us a dollar a theorem, but it's only fun if an "unbeliever"
pays up publicly. Otherwise big money would be greatly appreciated :-)
m.
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