DOCSLIB.ORG

Undiluted Hocus-Pocus Reviewed by Andy Magid

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Undiluted Hocus-Pocus Reviewed by Andy Magid Book Review Undiluted Hocus-Pocus Reviewed by Andy Magid Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of coming one of two Martin Gardner possible answers to Martin Gardner the trivia question, Princeton University Press, 2013 who is the most im- US$24.95, 288 pages portant nonfiction ISBN-13: 978-0691159911 writer from Tulsa? The other possible At one time, algebraists used to entertain them- answer is the histo- selves with the pseudotrivia question: who is rian Daniel Boorstin, the most important ring theorist from Alabama? who was also born “Pseudo” because the point was not to test the in 1914 but arrived interrogee’s knowledge of Cotton State mathemat- in Tulsa as an in- ics, but to surprise them with the answer, namely, fant. Both men grad- Nathan Jacobson. That it should be a surprise uated from Tulsa carried more than a whiff of Yankee chauvinism; Central High School, anyone familiar with the Midwestern U.S. small although Boorstin, town merchants of the 1940s and 1950s who were something of a prodigy, seems to have graduated born in Poland and raised in the American South at age fifteen before Gardner entered. I do not would have instantly recognized from Professor know if they ever met. Incidentally, even though I Jacobson’s speech patterns that he shared that met these men only briefly and then near the end biography. And the algebra community being the of their lives, I spoke to them enough to know size it is, anyone who could have been surprised by that you couldn’t detect anything in their speech the answer was surprised long ago, although there patterns suggesting a Tulsa biography, not even in is a similar question still making the rounds—who the telltale second person plural. is the best group theorist from Arkansas?—that There’s also the academic historian John Hope reeks of the same chauvinism. Franklin, who graduated from Tulsa’s Booker T. Algebraists annoyed at being asked the Jacob- Washington High School. Franklin was known more son question too many times began to respond as a scholar than as a writer, although his 1947 with the question, who is the second most impor- book From Slavery to Freedom has sold millions tant ring theorist from Alabama? which is a cute of copies. He was born two days after the end of riposte but finesses a more fundamental point. 1914, which makes him almost a coeval of Gardner Is there any reason we should care to know that and Boorstin; again, I don’t know if Franklin ever Jacobson was from Alabama? Or, for that matter, met Gardner or Boorstin. know any biographical trivia about any mathemati- Gardner’s impact on mathematics in America cal figure? was profound, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, Martin Gardner, the author and mathematics when he wrote his widely popular column “Math- columnist who died in 2010, was educated in Tulsa, ematical Games” for Scientific American. I was a Oklahoma, where he was born in 1914, thereby be- fan, beginning as a teenager, and loved reading the columns, especially those in narrative form Andy Magid is George Lynn Cross Professor of Mathemat- featuring the Dr. Matrix character. I also remember ics Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma. His email with pleasure reading in Gardner’s first collection address is amagid@ou.edu. of those columns, The Scientific American Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/noti1091 of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions, the MARCH 2014 NOTICES OF THE AMS 281 dedication to Gardner’s teacher at Tulsa Central platform is apparently a feature of express stops; High School, being an Oklahoma high school stu- hence the protagonist is said to live near such a dent myself at the time. I also have to say that, station) was unnecessary for most of his readers. with the possible exception of some word ladders, On the other hand, almost all the words in problem I can’t recall ever solving any of the problems in 2 are used in a specialized mathematical sense. Gardner’s column. This is no insult to Gardner—I Even if it were possible to present definition chains also never built any of the apparati described in of all the terminology involved, we would expect “The Amateur Scientist”, the wonderful Scientific years of study before a typical layperson would be American companion column by C. L. Strong—but comfortable tackling that problem. I hope those rather a testimony to his skills as a writer and the readers familiar with the terminology will agree pleasure his writing gave the reader. I suppose, with me, and I invite the rest to take my word for between the ends of the spectrum of readers like it, that the two problems are roughly the same sort me, who never solved any problems and read- of intellectual, or mathematical, challenge. ers, if any, for whom only the problems and not Month after month Martin Gardner’s column Gardner’s writing mattered fell the vast majority presented and discussed intellectual recreations of readers who made Gardner’s column the most that were on the level of what mathematicians popular feature of Scientific American in its day. thought about and yet were accessible to people Let’s agree that, whether he was a mathemati- without advanced mathematical training. He called cian or not, Martin Gardner wrote about math- these recreations—properly—mathematics. The ematical puzzles in an entertaining way that en- discipline has had no finer exponent. tranced a wide audience well beyond professional To further establish my Gardner fan credentials mathematicians and advanced students of math- before we turn to Gardner’s new book, I also re- ematics. Even when mathematics is admired by the call reading in high school with much satisfaction general public, as it was in post-Sputnik America, two other excellent Gardner books of the period, the gap between what the public thinks math- Logic Machines and Diagrams and Fads and Falla- ematics is and what mathematicians understand cies in the Name of Science. Both of these, by the mathematics to be is vast. What Martin Gardner way, could well have been collections of articles, accomplished was to bridge that gap. although they were in fact unified projects; Gard- Here’s an illustration. The following two prob- ner just seems to write that way naturally. His lems are, in my judgment, about equal in intel- other great style is being the annotator, as he is lectual content. The first comes from Gardner’s in his most popular book, The Annotated Alice in first collection of columns mentioned above. The Wonderland. To illustrate its popularity and to second is an exercise in commutative algebra. keep Gardner’s mathematician fan base in perspec- 1. A young man lives in Manhattan near a sub- tive, it’s well to recall that since its initial release way express station. He has two girlfriends, one in 1960, the number of copies of The Annotated in Brooklyn, one in the Bronx. To visit the girl in Brooklyn, he takes a train on the downtown side of Alice sold is about twenty times the number of the platform; to visit the girl in the Bronx he takes mathematicians in or joining the profession from a train on the uptown side of the same platform. then until now. Since he likes both girls equally well, he simply So how did Tulsa schoolboy Martin Gardner takes the first train that comes along. In this way become the popular and admired writer on math- he lets chance determine whether he rides to the ematics and other topics? Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: Bronx or to Brooklyn. The young man reaches the The Autobiography of Martin Gardner tells the subway platform at a random moment each Satur- story. Like everything Gardner ever wrote, it is day afternoon. Brooklyn and Bronx trains arrive at entertaining, informative, witty, deft, and a joy to the station equally often—every ten minutes. Yet read, or so this fan assesses. Mathematicians need he finds himself spending most of his time with to be aware that the role that mathematics, or the the girl in Brooklyn; in fact, on the average he goes writing of the “Mathematical Games” columns, there nine times out of ten. Can you think of a good plays in Gardner’s story of his life is brief. Readers reason why the odds so heavily favor Brooklyn? also need to be aware that Gardner is concerned 2. The commutative ring S is an algebra over the with philosophical ideas, including theological commutative ring R. The ring R has no nontrivial ones. In his preface, quoting Lenny Bruce, Gardner idempotents, and S is finitely generated as an R identifies himself with people leaving churches module. Can S have infinitely many idempotents? and going back to God. In his prologue, quoting One needs to understand some basic arithmetic himself from his 2007 Notices book review [“Do and have some notion of random and average to loops explain consciousness?: Review of I Am a solve problem one, but beyond that no special Strange Loop”, August 2007], Gardner identifies knowledge is required. I suspect that even the himself as a mysterian, i.e., one who is convinced one specialized detail that Gardner puts in (the that “no philosopher or scientist living today has uptown/downtown choice from the same central the foggiest notion of how consciousness, and its 282 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 61, NUMBER 3 inseparable companion free will, emerge, as they staff, the house my late mother-in-law grew up in surely do, from a material brain.” a mile north on Owasso, in a less ritzy area, also Gardner has previously spoken to the math- had servants’ quarters in the rear.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Story of Logic – Class Notes Fall 2010 Revised August 2012 CS 4860 Fall 2012 By: Robert L
    Applied Logic The Story of Logic – Class Notes Fall 2010 Revised August 2012 CS 4860 Fall 2012 By: Robert L. Constable 1 Classical Period These brief notes on the history of logic are meant to be an easily understood basis for stating very informally some of the great ideas in logic.1 Appreciating how the basic concepts were discovered and why they were needed is an accessible basis for a technical understanding of these concepts. For many students, this historical approach has been a route by which they have come to deeply understand and appreciate logic. Logic is one of the oldest continuously studied academic subjects, and while investigating its central questions, Alan M. Turing gave birth to computer science in 1936 as you will see toward the end of these notes. He and his thesis advisor at Princeton University, Alonzo Church, laid theoretical foundations for computer science that continue to frame some of the deepest questions and provide the conceptual tools for important applications. Indeed, their ideas underlie one of the most enduring contributions of computer science to intellectual history, the discovery that we can program computers to assist us in solving mathematical and scientific problems that we could not solve without them. It is no longer in doubt that computers can be programmed to perform high level mental operations that were once regarded as the pinnacle of human mental activity. Let us start as far back as is historically sensible as far as we know. 1.1 Epimenides of Crete circa 500 BCE Epimenides is reputed to have posed a version of the Liar’s Paradox, “All Cretans are liars” said a known Cretan.
    [Show full text]
  • Raymond Smullyan, the Amazing Mathematician and Logician, Died
    Remembering Raymond 1 S. Parthasarathy drpartha@gmail.com His looks would remind you of the wizard from Harry Potter movies. His nimble fingers can play effortlessly, Mozart and Chopin, on the piano. He can wave his empty hands and pull out a pigeon from nowhere. All this would have happened till 6 February 2017. That was when Raymond Smullyan, the amazing mathematician and logician, died. Raymond Merrill Smullyan (aka Raymond Smullyan), was born on May 25, 1919, in Far Rockaway, N.Y., the son of Isidore Smullyan and Rosina Freeman Smullyan. He was educated at the University of Chicago and Princeton University. He was a mathematician and logician, professor emeritus of philosophy at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Oscar Ewing professor of philosophy at Indiana University Bloomington. He was one of many logi- cians to have studied under Alonzo Church. As an academic, he was known for his work in math and logic. He was also an author of a series of popular books on recreational logic, including, "What is the name of this book?" and \The lady and the tiger". A review of his book \Satan, Cantor and Infinity: Mind-Boggling Puzzles" appeared sometime ago in Gonitsora. Smullyan's life itself was closely influenced by logic. Here are two instances: The following story (published earlier in Gonitsora) was narrated by Smullyan himself in a video presentation: When Smullyan, the master of puzzles, met his date, he challenged her to a logical puzzle. The contract: Smullyan was to make a statement. • If the statement were true, the date had to give Smullyan an autograph.
    [Show full text]
  • Facilitated Communication: a Cruel Farce
    NOTES OF A FRINGE-WATCHER MARTIN GARDNER Facilitated Communication: A Cruel Farce y previous column was about males outnumber females four to one so upon a revolutionary new technique. the myth, so vigorously I shall use the pronoun "he" for any child Today he considers her his "dear friend" M promoted by Dr. Bruno with severe autism.) A therapist, usually a and mentor. Back at Syracuse, Biklen Bettelheim, that autism is caused by woman, is called the child's "facilitator." founded the Facilitated Communi­ "refrigerator mothers"—mothers with She asks the child a question, then grasps cation Institute, and quickly became the cold, unloving personalities. During the his hand, wrist, or elbow—usually the nation's top guru in promoting FC. past two decades other preposterous hand—while the child extends his index Thousands of therapists have been myths about autism have flourished. One finger and begins to type. The belief is trained in FC at his institute. is the widespread belief among agonized that the child has the ability to commu­ FC spread like wildfire across the parents that their child's autism is caused nicate intelligent thoughts by typing, but nation and abroad. Dozens of FC centers by early vaccinations. Because there is not lacks the muscular coordination needed were established around the U.S. where a shred of evidence for this, I shall not for finding the right keys. The facilitator parents, for a sizeable fee, could bring a waste space on it here. My topic is a assists him in locating the keys she is sure child with autism and have his normal much more pervasive, more cruel he intends to hit.
    [Show full text]
  • A Quarter-Century of Recreational Mathematics
    A Quarter-Century of Recreational Mathematics The author of Scientific American’s column “Mathematical Games” from 1956 to 1981 recounts 25 years of amusing puzzles and serious discoveries by Martin Gardner “Amusement is one of the kamp of the University of fields of applied math.” California at Berkeley. Arti- —William F. White, cles on recreational mathe- A Scrapbook of matics also appear with in- Elementary Mathematics creasing frequency in mathe- matical periodicals. The quarterly Journal of Recrea- tional Mathematics began y “Mathemati- publication in 1968. cal Games” col- The line between entertain- Mumn began in ing math and serious math is the December 1956 issue of a blurry one. Many profes- Scientific American with an sional mathematicians regard article on hexaflexagons. their work as a form of play, These curious structures, cre- in the same way professional ated by folding an ordinary golfers or basketball stars strip of paper into a hexagon might. In general, math is and then gluing the ends to- considered recreational if it gether, could be turned inside has a playful aspect that can out repeatedly, revealing one be understood and appreci- or more hidden faces. The Gamma Liaison ated by nonmathematicians. structures were invented in Recreational math includes 1939 by a group of Princeton elementary problems with University graduate students. DONNA BISE elegant, and at times surpris- Hexaflexagons are fun to MARTIN GARDNER continues to tackle mathematical puz- ing, solutions. It also encom- play with, but more impor- zles at his home in Hendersonville, N.C. The 83-year-old writ- passes mind-bending para- tant, they show the link be- er poses next to a Klein bottle, an object that has just one sur- doxes, ingenious games, be- face: the bottle’s inside and outside connect seamlessly.
    [Show full text]
  • Interview with John Horton Conway
    Interview with John Horton Conway Dierk Schleicher his is an edited version of an interview with John Horton Conway conducted in July 2011 at the first International Math- ematical Summer School for Students at Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany, Tand slightly extended afterwards. The interviewer, Dierk Schleicher, professor of mathematics at Jacobs University, served on the organizing com- mittee and the scientific committee for the summer school. The second summer school took place in August 2012 at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France, and the next one is planned for July 2013, again at Jacobs University. Further information about the summer school is available at http://www.math.jacobs-university.de/ summerschool. John Horton Conway in August 2012 lecturing John H. Conway is one of the preeminent the- on FRACTRAN at Jacobs University Bremen. orists in the study of finite groups and one of the world’s foremost knot theorists. He has written or co-written more than ten books and more than one- received the Pólya Prize of the London Mathemati- hundred thirty journal articles on a wide variety cal Society and the Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize of mathematical subjects. He has done important in Mathematics of Northwestern University. work in number theory, game theory, coding the- Schleicher: John Conway, welcome to the Interna- ory, tiling, and the creation of new number systems, tional Mathematical Summer School for Students including the “surreal numbers”. He is also widely here at Jacobs University in Bremen. Why did you known as the inventor of the “Game of Life”, a com- accept the invitation to participate? puter simulation of simple cellular “life” governed Conway: I like teaching, and I like talking to young by simple rules that give rise to complex behavior.
    [Show full text]
  • An Obituary of Raymond Smullyan - 02-20-2017 by S
    Remembering Raymond: An Obituary of Raymond Smullyan - 02-20-2017 by S. Parthasarathy - Gonit Sora - http://gonitsora.com Remembering Raymond: An Obituary of Raymond Smullyan by S. Parthasarathy - Monday, February 20, 2017 http://gonitsora.com/obituary-raymond-smullyan/ His looks would remind you of the wizard from Harry Potter movies. His nimble fingers can play effortlessly, Mozart and Chopin, on the piano. He can wave his empty hands and pull out a pigeon from nowhere. All this would have happened till 6 February 2017. That was when Raymond Smullyan, the amazing mathematician and logician, died. Raymond Merrill Smullyan (aka Raymond Smullyan), was born on May 25, 1919, in Far Rockaway, N.Y., the son of Isidore Smullyan and Rosina Freeman Smullyan. He was educated at the University of Chicago and Princeton University. He was a mathematician and logician, professor emeritus of philosophy at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Oscar Ewing professor of philosophy at Indiana University Bloomington. He was one of many logicians to have studied under Alonzo Church. As an academic, he was known for his work in math and logic. He was also an author of a series of popular books on recreational logic, including, "What is the name of this book?" and ``The lady and the tiger''. A review of his book ``Satan, Cantor and Infinity: Mind-Boggling Puzzles'' appeared sometime ago in this website. Smullyan's life itself was closely influenced by logic. Here are two instances: The following story (published earlier in this website) was narrated by Smullyan himself in a video presentation: When Smullyan, the master of puzzles, met his date, he challenged her to a logical puzzle.
    [Show full text]
  • Martin Gardner and Scientific American
    would handle all questions in the following month’s col- Martin Gardner and Scientific American: umn. (See Chapter 10 of Martin’s Time Travel and Other The Magazine, Columns, and the Legacy Mathematical Bewilderments for the story.) by Peter L. Renz Martin’s columns rewarded careful readers and skim- mers. Morris looked carefully at the material that was I worked with Martin Gardner as an editor and saw some down his alley. He skimmed the rest and it all looked of the action behind the scenes. How did those who looked fine to him. Thousandsp of readers did the 136 worked with him see him? What resources did he draw same. One “discovery” was that e exactly equals upon? How did he do what he did? Here is a start at 262; 537; 421; 640; 768; 744. The numbers match to one 30 the answers to these questions. part in 10 . Finding the discrepancy by calculation would have been difficult in 1975. At Scientific American. In 1974 I visited my colleagues at Scientific American before heading to Hastings-on- In 2007 I looked through all of Martin’s columns finding the illustrators so they could be credited in new edi- Hudson to meet Martin Gardner. Dennis Flanagan, ed- tions. This gave me a feeling for the columns: their itor of the magazine, told me that having columns like variety and their ideal length and accessibility. I was Martin’s freed him for the trickier parts of his job. Re- reminded of how Martin’s problems permeated the at- viewing Martin’s Colossal Book of Mathematics in Ameri- mosphere in the column’s heyday.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fantastic Combinations of John Conway's New Solitaire Game "Life" - M
    Mathematical Games - The fantastic combinations of John Conway's new solitaire game "life" - M. Gardner - 1970 Suche Home Einstellungen Anmelden Hilfe MATHEMATICAL GAMES The fantastic combinations of John Conway's new solitaire game "life" by Martin Gardner Scientific American 223 (October 1970): 120-123. Most of the work of John Horton Conway, a mathematician at Gonville and Caius College of the University of Cambridge, has been in pure mathematics. For instance, in 1967 he discovered a new group-- some call it "Conway's constellation"--that includes all but two of the then known sporadic groups. (They are called "sporadic" because they fail to fit any classification scheme.) Is is a breakthrough that has had exciting repercussions in both group theory and number theory. It ties in closely with an earlier discovery by John Conway of an extremely dense packing of unit spheres in a space of 24 dimensions where each sphere touches 196,560 others. As Conway has remarked, "There is a lot of room up there." In addition to such serious work Conway also enjoys recreational mathematics. Although he is highly productive in this field, he seldom publishes his discoveries. One exception was his paper on "Mrs. Perkin's Quilt," a dissection problem discussed in "Mathematical Games" for September, 1966. My topic for July, 1967, was sprouts, a topological pencil-and-paper game invented by Conway and M. S. Paterson. Conway has been mentioned here several other times. This month we consider Conway's latest brainchild, a fantastic solitaire pastime he calls "life". Because of its analogies with the rise, fall and alternations of a society of living organisms, it belongs to a growing class of what are called "simulation games"--games that resemble real-life processes.
    [Show full text]
  • LOGIC AROUND the WORLD on the Occasion of 5Th Annual Conference of the Iranian Association for Logic
    LOGIC AROUND THE WORLD On the Occasion of 5th Annual Conference of the Iranian Association for Logic Edited by: Massoud Pourmahdian Ali Sadegh Daghighi Department of Mathematics & Computer Science Amirkabir University of Technology In memory of Avicenna, the great Iranian medieval polymath who made a major contribution to logic. LOGIC AROUND THE WORLD On the Occasion of 5th Annual Conference of the Iranian Association for Logic Editors: Massoud Pourmahdian, Ali Sadegh Daghighi Cover Design: Ali Sadegh Daghighi Page Layout: Seyyed Ahmad Mirsanei Circulation: 500 Price: 6 $ ISBN: 978-600-6386-99-7 سرشناسه: کنفرانس ساﻻنه ی انجمن منطق ایران )پنجمین : ۷۱۰۲م.= ۰۹۳۱ : تهران( Annual Conference of the Iranian Association for Logic (5th : 2017 : Tehran) عنوان و نام پدیدآور: Logic around the World : On the Occasion of 5th Annual Conference of the Iranian Association for Logic / edited by Massoud Pourmahdian, Ali Sadegh Daghighi. مشخصات نشر: قم : اندیشه و فرهنگ جاویدان، ۶۹۳۱= ۷۱۶۲م. مشخصات ظاهری: ۷۵۱ ص. شابک: 978-600-6386-99-7 وضعیت فهرست نویسی: فیپا یادداشت: انگلیسی. موضوع: منطق ریاضی-- کنگره ها موضوع: Logic, Symbolic and Mathematical – Congresses شناسه افزوده: پورمهدیان، مسعود، ۶۹۳۱ -، ویراستار شناسه افزوده: Pourmahdian, Massoud شناسه افزوده: صادق دقیقی، علی، ۶۹۱۵ -، ویراستار شناسه افزوده: Sadegh Daghighi, Ali رده بندی کنگره: ۶۹۳۱ ۳ک/ BC ۶۹۵ رده بندی دیویی: ۵۶۶/۹ شماره کتابشناسی ملی: ۳۳۴۶۳۷۳ © 2017 A.F.J. Publishing This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks.
    [Show full text]
  • HUMANISM and SCIENCE by John Hoad
    Humanism Today HUMANISM AND SCIENCE by John Hoad Philosophy may be defined as an exercise in getting conceptual leverage on reality. Humanism is a philosophy and I find it important first to ex- amine what we mean by Humanism before going on to use it for the leverage it brings on human life and its problems. This is particularly necessary because we are in a transition period when several differing definitions are given to Humanism. I speak from my own experience in coming within the last six years into an institutionalized setting for my Humanism. At first I was struck by how frequent and intense the "antidefinitions" were: that is, Humanism defined by what it is not or what it is against. Such Humanism is against God, against Bible, against any suggestion of any reality other than the one accessible to our senses. I even began to discern a certain obssession with the negative: what I call a "trans-meta-super-para- noia!" This may be defined as a tendency to bristle whenever one of those Latin or Greek prefixes gets used. I was particularly interested in how some Humanists related to Jesus-writing articles that proclaimed him one month as not historical, the next month as not original, the third month as irrelevant. I would think to myself, Well, I guess now that they have got that off their chest, they will move on. But no! off they would go again on the cross as a phallus or Jesus as a code name for a mushroom cult, or whatever.
    [Show full text]
  • November 2004 Master of Recreational Mathematics — and Much More an Interview with Martin Gardner
    FOCUS November 2004 Master of Recreational Mathematics — and Much More An Interview with Martin Gardner By Don Albers On October 21, Martin Gardner cel- he has produced more than 60 books, a few local magicians in Tulsa, Logan ebrated his ninetieth birthday. For 25 of most still in print; many have been Waite and Wabash Hughes, who worked his 90 years, Gardner wrote the monthly bestsellers. His Annotated Alice has sold for the Wabash Railroad. “Mathematical Games “ column for Sci- over a million copies, and the 15 volumes entific American. His columns have in- collecting his “Mathematical Games” DA: At what age did this occur? spired thousands of readers to learn columns have gone through several more about the mathematics that he printings. All 15 volumes have been digi- MG: I was a high school student at the loved to explore and explain. Among his tized and will soon be published by the time. I’ve never performed magic; it’s just column correspondents were several dis- MAA on a single CD entitled Martin been a hobby. The only time I got paid tinguished mathematicians and scien- Gardner’s Mathematical Games. for doing magic was when I was a stu- tists, including John Horton Conway, dent at The University of Chicago; I used Persi Diaconis, Ron Graham, Douglas In his ninetieth year, he has returned to to work at the Marshall Field’s depart- Hofstadter, Richard Guy, Don Knuth, Sol Oklahoma, where he was born. He is in ment store during the Christmas season Golomb, and Roger Penrose. good health and full of energy.
    [Show full text]
  • Martin Gardner Was Extracted from the Trickster and the Paranormal (Chapter 20, “Reflexivity and the Trickster”) by George P
    GEORGE P. HANSEN REFLEXIVITY 291 This piece on Martin Gardner was extracted from The Trickster and the Paranormal (Chapter 20, “Reflexivity and the Trickster”) by George P. Hansen (Philadelphia, PA: Xlibris, 2001). The layout almost, but not quite, matches the layout in the book. The page breaks are similar but not identical. The endnotes have been renumbered. References lacking full citations within the endnotes are given in the reference list at the end. Martin Gardner The person of Martin Gardner illuminates reflexivity. His work covers mathematics, magic, literary criticism, the paranormal, religion, and paradox, and he exemplifies the cross-pollination and hybridiza- tion that can accompany reflexivity. Gardner is a lively, fascinating, 292 GEORGE P. HANSEN REFLEXIVITY 293 scenes. He aided C. E. M. Hansel in getting his academic, highly skep- and paradoxical character, and as such this section may provide a res- tical ESP: A Scientific Evaluation published in 1966; that book was pite from the abstract philosophical matters that dominate this Part. probably the most detailed critique of the scientific parapsychology Gardner has also been the single most powerful antagonist of the literature to that time. Undoubtedly Gardner has helped others. He paranormal in the second half of the twentieth century, and any cultural was a founding member of CSICOP, and his circle of friends, including analysis of the paranormal must grapple with him. His innumerable Marcello Truzzi, James Randi, and Ray Hyman had formed a loose books, articles, and life provide a wealth of material for examination.1 group called RSEP (Resources for the Scientific Evaluation of the These illuminate the paranormal in a way rarely seen; for the antagonist Paranormal) that was CSICOP’s immediate predecessor.
    [Show full text]