Sunday, March 5, 2017

Sunday With Hermann


Sunday reflection from a 2014 paper on mathematical neural correlates:
"Hermann Weyl is recorded as having said, 'My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.' Relevant here is the story of Weyl's mathematical formulations, which tried to reconcile electromagnetism with relativity. Rejected at first (by Einstein) because it was thought to conflict with experimental evidence, it came subsequently to be accepted but only after the advent of quantum mechanics, which led to a new interpretation of Weyl's equations. Hence the perceived beauty of his mathematical formulations ultimately predicted truths even before the full facts were known."

No comments: