Crazy Geniuses on the Internet

There’s something about crazy, smart mathematicians that grab our attention. Two recent movies, Good Will Hunting and A Beautiful Mind, feature those freaks. The latest one to land on the front page of the New York Times and the New Yorker is Grigory Perelman who solved the Poincaré conjecture.

Really excellent article in the New Yorker that discusses Perelman’s history and relationship with other mathematicians. I just want to pick out one part of this story for this post.

After spending time studying and teaching in America, Perelman returns back to Russia. He moves in with mother, like all good crazy geniuses must do, in a gloomy suburb outside of St. Petersburg. Though he was isolated from the top notch academics, he discussed ideas with other mathematicians across the world on the Internet. “The Internet made it possible for Perelman to work alone while continuing to tap a common pool of knowledge. “

When he had finalized his results for this question that had stumped the great minds for a hundred years, instead of publishing them in a peer reviewed journal, he just put it up on the Internet. Bypassing the usual channels, enraged some of his more traditional colleagues. He was also opening himself up to other mathematician from fixing any errors and claiming victory. “But Perelman said he was not particularly concerned. “My reasoning was: if I made an error and someone used my work to construct a correct proof I would be pleased,” he said. “I never set out to be the sole solver of the Poincaré.””

This is yet another example of how the Internet is reshaping academia and threatening the gatekeepers. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smells like victory.