Mathematicians sense it too. The introduction of computers into mathematics has introduced a new materialist challenge into higher mathematics. Can a machine made of wires and silicon chips be allowed in the aetherial world of abstract mathematics? Are proofs accomplished by such material means legitimate? Is mathematics, the realm of pure unadulterated reason, compromised by the brute calculating power of these material beings?

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Nestelt Bindfadenprimat am Hängekliff

Kleinkujau ihr Rührräuber habt eifriges

Holz an der Geleitfahrt Gehirntanktstelle

gelappertes Mehl mal Hirsebirne zwischen

den mageren Holzklippen Spaltstuhl

verklapptes Diesel mit Schubsäcken

elektrifiziertes Denkbleibsel was für

ein Sittich saftet im Fadennitrat ein

Führschiffer sag ich ein Binnenbirnler

am elektrischen Sondermorgen zwischen

Hose Holzzäunen lasten Säcke als

schwimmt der

täte was

sag ich

lodert der

Ingrid Wiener: Erste Schritte auf dem Weg zu Bayes # 7, Gobelin 2007, 34×50cm nach Blei- und Filzstiftnotizen auf DIN A4

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And yet, the politics of mathematics are still with us, bubbling beneath the surface. We sense it in the rule of professional “experts,” champions of order and necessity, who are forever seeking to present their claim in a mathematical mantle. They hope to infuse their arguments with a touch of mathematics’ aura of inevitability. We also sense it in the indifference, and even hostility towards mathematics of students and citizens. They refuse to engage with a field that will impose it absolute truths upon them, and never ask for their considered opinion. We see it in the schools, in the repeated struggles between “new math” and “old math” teaching methods, which map closely onto the political divisions between Left and Right.

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Bürdet wer Fehlfliege

anleitet als Gelenktankstelle

schleift und schmiert

das Fossil fühlig mit

gereichterten Augenzellen

luftig die Zufuhr matter

Baracken mit Lebendfingern

beschirmter Versuch

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